Is acute watery diarrhoea an important cause of morbidity and mortality among rural Bangladeshi children?

Antimycotic Activity Potentiation of Allium sativum Extract and Silver Nanoparticles against Trichophyton rubrum

A natural and biocompatible extract of garlic as a support, decorated with silver nanoparticles, is a proposal to generate an effective antifungal agent against dermatophytes at low concentrations. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) with a diameter of 26±7 nm were synthesized and their antimycotic activity was examined against Trichophyton rubrum (T. rubrum), inhibiting 94 % of growth at a concentration of 0.08 mg ml^-1 . Allium sativum (garlic) extract was also obtained (AsExt), and its MIC was 0.04 mg ml^-1 . To increase the antifungal capacity of those systems, AsExt was decorated with AgNPs, obtaining AsExt-AgNPs. Using an AsExt concentration of 0.04 mg ml^-1 in independent experiments with concentrations from 0.01 to 0.08 mg ml^-1 of AgNPs, it was possible to inhibit T. rubrum at all AgNPs concentrations; it proves a synergistic effect between AgNPs and AsExt. Even if 1 % of the minimum inhibitory concentration of AsExt (0.0004 mg ml^-1 ) is used, it was possible to inhibit T. rubrum at all concentrations of AgNPs, demonstrating the successful antimycotic activity potentiation when combining AsExt and AgNPs.

Spatial distribution of watery diarrhoea in children: identification of "risk areas" in a rural community in Bangladesh

To assess the geographic variation of acute watery diarrhoea in children 0 to 5 years old in rural Bangladesh, all cases of "cholera-like" diarrhoea were plotted on the map. A clustering pattern was noticed, and validated by a nonparametric clustering test for in-homogeneous population. Several risk areas for the disease were identified. In these areas, the point prevalence (8.7/1000) was notably higher than outside the areas (0.41/1000), (95% confidence interval, 15.55-29.30). Parents' education, population density and use of sanitary latrines were significantly related to the risk areas (p < or = 0.001). The results of this study indicate that computer-assisted mapping may be useful in defining and monitoring risk areas for watery diarrhoea in children.