Further study on the effect of norethisterone enanthate, an injectable contraceptive on body functions

One hundred and fortythree healthy Bengali women have received norethisterone enanthate, as injectable contraceptive in doses of 200 mg. intramuscularly at intervals of 10 to 12 weeks. The drug have been found to be almost 100 percent effective in the control of fertility. Menstrual disturbance, e.g. amenorrhoea, irregular bleeding and spotting, appeared to be the main complaints of the clients during the initial period of the therapy; but these did not persist long. There was no ill effect of the drug on lactation. No significant change in body weight, blood pressure, platelet count, fasting blood sugar, serum cholesterol and total plasma protein level was observed following administration of norethisterone enanthate over one year.

Oral hydration rotavirus diarrhoea: a double blind comparison of sucrose with glucose electrolyte solution

Of 57 male children, aged 5 months to 2 1/2 years with rotavirus diarrhoea, 28 were given oral therapy with sucrose electrolyte solution and 29 were given glucose electrolyte solution in a randomised double-blind trial. All were rehydrated and remained so on oral therapy alone. These patients were compared with 44 children, also with rotavirus, who were treated only with intravenous hydration. The oral therapy and intravenous therapy groups did not differ clinically in the rate of rehydration or the rate of purging. Vomiting did not prevent the giving of oral therapy during hospital admission. Bangladeshi children with rotavirus diarrhoea have a defect of carbohydrate digestion but this defect does not prevent the use of a sugar electrolyte solution for oral hydration.

Failure of sanitary wells to protect against cholera and other diarrhoeas in Bangladesh

Within an area of Bangladesh in which the incidence of cholera was high, use of sanitary pipe wells did not protect against cholera or related non-cholera diarrhoeas because well users also used contaminated water sources regularly enough to maintain high infection-rates. Protection was found to correlate with education and wealth.

Nutritional status: a determinant of severity of diarrhea in patients with cholera

The severity of diarrhea and nutritional status were measured in a prospective study of 97 patients hospitalized with cholera in Dacca, Bangladesh. Ninety-five percent of both adults and children were below their respective medians in weight as related to height; greater than 15% of each group showed second-degree protein-calorie malnutrition. Duration of diarrhea, but no volume of stool per hour, was prolonged by 30%-70% in those adults and children suffering from more severe malnutrition. The increased stool loss was unrelated to antibiotic usage, to presence of intestinal parasites, or to the refeeding diet given. It is suggested that the prolongation of diarrhea represents the continued effect of cholera toxin that is irreversibly bound to intestinal mucosal cells, the replacement of which would be retarded under conditions of poor nutrition.