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Introduction La démence est une réalité au cours de l’infection au virus immunodéficience humaine. Au Mali aucune étude spécifique n’a été réalisée pour déterminer cette fréquence. L’objectif de cette étude est de : Déterminer la fréquence de la démence associée au virus immunodéficience humaine au Centre Hospitalier Universitaire du Point G Déterminer le profil clinique et les facteurs de risque de la démence associée au virus immunodéficience humaine. Méthodologie : Il s’agit d’une étude prospective allant de la période de juillet 2009 à Aout 2010. Au Total 113 patients séropositifs âgés de 16 ans et plus ont été colligés dans les services de maladies infectieuses et tropicales, le service de neurologie et le service des urgences du CHU point G. Les données ont été collectées en utilisant une fiche d’enquête clinique préétablie. Les patients étaient interviewés et évalués en utilisant l’Echelle International d’Evaluation des Troubles démentiels du malade VIH Le score total est égal à 12 points, un score inférieur ou égal à 10 est considéré comme anormal pouvant faire évoquer une démence chez un malade séropositif. . Résultats : La fréquence de la démence associée au virus immunodéficience était de (69,9%). L’état clinique très avancé, l’altération des activités de la vie quotidienne, le faible niveau d’étude, le stade du Syndrome Immunodéficience Acquis, et le taux de lymphocytes CD4 ont été retenus comme des facteurs ayant des influences très considérables sur la survenue de la démence liée au virus immunodéficience humaine Conclusion : L’échelle internationale d’évaluation des troubles démentiels du malade VIH est un test qui permet le dépistage de la démence au cours de l’infection au virus immunodéficience humaine. Soixante-dix pourcent des patients de notre série étaient déments avec un score inférieur ou égal à 10. La tranche d’âge de 25à 35 ans était la plus touchée avec 34,51% des cas.

In developing countries, 15.6% of pregnant women and 19.8% after childbirth experience a mental disorder. In the absence of data on the situation in Cameroon, we carried out a study to determine the prevalence of perinatal mental illness in this hospital and its risk factors among women in perinatal period and the relationship between both at the Yaoundé Gynaeco-Obstetric and Paediatric Hospital, a reference mother and child hospital. We conducted a hospital-based, cross sectional, observational study. Data was collected using structured and semi-structured interviews. There were six sub-themes covered: participants’ socio-demographic profile, clinical profile, perinatal history, psychopathology aspects with the Mini International Psychiatric Interview, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, the State Trait Anxiety Inventory and the perinatal mental illness risk factors. Data entry was done using Microsoft Excel 2010 and transferred to Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 23.0 for analysis. Among 194 women who participated in the study, the general prevalence for perinatal mental disorders was 53.6% (104/194), 25.8% among pregnant women and 27.8% among postnatal women. Comorbidities were present in 17.5% of our study population. We observed that 45.8% suffered from depression, 17% had a risk of suicide, 10.3% suffered from perinatal anxiety, 3.1% presented with post-traumatic stress disorder, 3.6% acute stress disorder, 7.7% had adjustment disorder. Concerning risk factors, we found a significant link between depression and severe anxiety before delivery (p

Abstract Background People with disabilities experience significant health inequalities. In Malawi, where most individuals live in low-income rural settings, many of these inequalities are exacerbated by restricted access to health care services. This qualitative study explores the barriers to health care access experienced by individuals with a mobility or sensory impairment, or both, living in rural villages in Dowa district, central Malawi. In addition, the impact of a chronic lung condition, alongside a mobility or sensory impairment, on health care accessibility is explored. Methods Using data from survey responses obtained through the Research for Equity And Community Health (REACH) Trust’s randomised control trial in Malawi, 12 adult participants, with scores of either 3 or 4 in the Washington Group Short Set (WGSS) questions, were recruited. The WGSS questions concern a person’s ability in core functional domains (including seeing, hearing and moving), and a score of 3 indicates ‘a lot of difficulty’ whilst 4 means ‘cannot do at all’. People with cognitive impairments were not included in this study. All who were selected for the study participated in an individual in-depth interview and full recordings of these were then transcribed and translated. Results Through thematic analysis of the transcripts, three main barriers to timely and adequate health care were identified: 1) Cost of transport, drugs and services, 2) Insufficient health care resources, and 3) Dependence on others. Attitudinal factors were explored and, whilst unfavourable health seeking behaviour was found to act as an access barrier for some participants, community and health care workers’ attitudes towards disability were not reported to influence health care accessibility in this study. Conclusions This study finds that health care access for people with disabilities in rural Malawi is hindered by closely interconnected financial, practical and social barriers. There is a clear requirement for policy makers to consider the challenges identified here, and in similar studies, and to address them through improved social security systems and health system infrastructure, including outreach services, in a drive for equitable health care access and provision.

INTRODUCTION:Chronic cough is a distressing symptom and a common reason for people to seek health care services. It is a symptom that can indicate underlying tuberculosis (TB) and/or chronic airways diseases (CAD) including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and bronchiectasis. In developing countries including Malawi, provision of diagnostic services and clinical management of CAD is rudimentary, so it is thought that patients make costly and unyielding repeated care-seeking visits. There is, however, a lack of information on cost of illness, both direct and indirect, to patients with chronic cough symptom. Such data are needed to inform policy-makers in making decisions on allocating resources for designing and developing the relevant health care services to address universal coverage programmes for CAD. This paper therefore explores health seeking costs associated with chronic cough and explores information on usage of the coping mechanisms which indicate financial hardship, such as borrowing and selling household assets. METHODS:This economic study was nested within a community-based, population-proportional cross-sectional survey of 15,795 individuals aged 15 years and above, in Dowa and Ntchisi districts. The study sought to identify individuals with symptoms of chronic airways disease whose health records documented at least one of the following diagnoses within the previous year: TB, Asthma, COPD, Bronchitis and Lower Respiratory Tract Infection (LRTI). We interviewed these chronic coughers to collect information on socioeconomic and socio-demographic characteristics, health care utilization, and associated costs of care in 2015. We also collected information on how they funded their health seeking costs. RESULTS:We identified 608 chronic coughers who reported costs in relation to their latest confirmed diagnosis in their hand-held health record. The mean care-seeking cost per patient was US$ 3.9 (95% CI: 3.00-5.03); 2.3 times the average per capita expenditure on health of US$ 1.69. The largest costs were due to transport (US$ 1.4), followed by drugs (US$ 1.3). The costs of non-medical inputs (US$ 2.09) was considerable (52.3%). Nearly a quarter (24.4%) of all the patients reportedly borrowed or/and sold assets/property to finance their healthcare. CCs with COPD and LRTI had 85.6% and 62.0% lower chance of incurring any costs compared with the TB patients and any patients with comorbidity had 2.9 times higher chance to incur any costs than the patients with single disease. COPD, Bronchitis and LRTI patients had 123.9%, 211.4% and 87.9% lower costs than the patients with TB. The patients with comorbidity incurred 53.9% higher costs than those with single disease. CONCLUSIONS:The costs of healthcare per chronic cougher was mainly influenced by the transport and drugs costs. Types of diseases and comorbidity led to significantly different chances of incurring costs as well as difference in magnitude of costs. The costs appeared to be unaffordable for many patients.

BACKGROUND:Chronic lung diseases contribute to the growing non-communicable disease (NCD) burden and are increasing, particularly in many low and middle-income countries (LMIC) in sub-Saharan African. Early engagement with health systems in chronic lung disease management is critical to maintain quality of life and prevent further damage. Our study sought to understand health seeking behaviour in relation to chronic lung disease and TB in a rural district in Malawi. METHODS:Qualitative data was collected between March-May 2015, exploring patterns of health seeking for lung disease amongst residents of two districts in rural Malawi. Participants included those with and without lung disease, health workers and village leaders. Participants with a history of TB were included in the sample due to similarities in clinical presentation and in view of potential to cause long-term damage to lung tissue. RESULTS:Our findings are ordered around a specific model of health seeking devised by adapting previous models. The model and findings span three broad areas that were found to influence health seeking: understandings of health and disease which shaped whether, when and where to seek care; the care seeking decision which was influenced by social and structural factors; and the care seeking experience which impacted future care decisions creating 'feedback loops'. DISCUSSION:Efforts to improve effective and accessible healthcare provision for chronic lung disease need to address all the determinants of health seeking behaviour identified. This may include: enhancing the structural and financial accessibility of health services, through the strengthening of community linkages; improving communication between formal health providers, patients and communities around symptoms, diagnosis and management of chronic lung diseases; and improving the quality of diagnostic and management services through the strengthening of health systems 'hardware' (equipment availability) and 'software' (development of trusting and respectful relationships between providers and patients).