21^st World Congress on Nursing Pharmacology and Nursing Education Nov 20-21, 2017 Melbourne, Australia

Biography:

Amal I Khalil is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Mental Health Nursing at the Menoufia University, Egypt. Currently, she is working in King Saud Bin Abdul-Aziz University of Health Sciences, College of Nursing, Jeddah, where she was awarded many times for her teaching activities, community and social contributions. She was nominated as a reviewer to the Journal of Horizon Research Publishing, USA; International Journal of Nursing and Clinical Practices and International journal of research in nursing. She has many publications and presenting many researches both national and international. In addition to teaching and research, she had worked as a Psychotherapist at a private practice and has membership in American Psychiatric Nurse Association, family and child safety program related to National Guard health affairs, Saudi Arabia and KAFA institution for smoking and addiction management.

Abstract:

Abstract

Background: Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a form of gender-based violence and a violation of female human rights. Although much work has been done to tackle this practice in Egypt, the UNICEF (2016) reported that, prevalence remains high in Africa and the middle East.

Aim: The aim is to investigate the effectiveness of an educational program in exchanging knowledge, attitudes and practices of school teachers towards FGM.

Methods: A quasi experimental research design (one group pre/post) assessment was used with 30 female teachers selected conveniently from Al-Tonsi Primary School mixed education (male and female) affiliated to Ministry of Art and Education, Cairo, Egypt.

Results: 30 Egyptian teachers with mean age 36.93±8.42 and mean number of daughters was 1.47±0.0.73; majority of them were university graduates, grown up in urban areas and were married (80.0%, 73.3% and 86.6%, respectively). Most of the respondents, 86.7% were circumcised, 77% of them were circumcised by traditional birth attendants. The mean total score for knowledge about FGM was 11.7±2.0.0 in the pre-test compared to 27.4±1.3 in the post-test with a statistical significant difference (P<0.001). The mean total score for attitude toward FGM practices was 43.9±6.8 in the pre-test as compared to 26.5±1.6 in the post-test with a significant difference (P<0.001). About 20% of the respondents were willing to circumcise their daughters in the pre-test with a significantly higher prevalence among teachers who grew up in urban areas (66.7%) than in rural areas (P<0.001) as compared to 0.0% in the post-test. Significant correlations were found between the age of respondents and the total attitude score in the pretest (P=0.002), the number of daughters and the total attitude score in the pre-test and post-test were (P=0.03 and P=0.01 respectively).

Conclusions & Recommendations: The educational program was effective in changing knowledge, attitudes and future practices of female teachers towards FGM. Therefore, addressing mothers through ongoing educational activities is still needed to increase their awareness regarding dangers of FGC practice and change their attitude towards its continuation.

Biography:

Abstract

 

Child mortality, defined as death of infants and children under age of 5-years is an important measure of child health as well as an indicator of the overall health status of a country or region. Children are more vulnerable to all kinds of hazards than adults as they are dependent on parents or other care takers to provide what they need in order to survive. The current study therefore examined associations between household resources and child mortality in Ghana. The study answered the following research questions: (1) What household resources are associated with child mortality in Ghana? (2) Does the availability of household resources contribute to child mortality over and above the influence of other measures of socioeconomic status? This cross-sectional descriptive study analyzed the 2007 Ghana Maternal Health Survey. The analyzed for this study consist of 7183 parous women aged 15-45 years. Descriptive inferential statistics were used to summarize the means of continuous variables and proportions of categorical variables and to cross-tabulate each variable, including the household resources, by maternal report of child death in the full sample and in the sample stratified by rurality of residence. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the association between household resources and child mortality, controlling for the covariates. Women who resided in the urban area were more likely to report access to all the household resources measured than those in rural area, except kerosene lantern for which more rural women reported possession. In unadjusted comparisons, a significantly lower proportion of women who reported possession of each of the household resources reported child mortality. In the model restricted to women living in rural areas, none of the household resources were associated with child mortality. In contrast, in the model restricted to women living in urban areas and towns, having refrigerator at the time of interview was associated with lower odds of reporting child mortality 0.63 [95% CI: 0.48, 0.83]; whereas, having a kerosene lantern [AOR=1.40; 95% CI: 1.06, 1.85] or flush toilet [AOR=1.84; 95% CI: 1.23, 2.75] was associated with higher odds of reporting child mortality. Possession of a refrigerator may play a role in child mortality, particularly in urban areas. This finding may reflect unmeasured SES or the importance of access to refrigeration in preventing diarrheal disease or other proximal causes of child mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa.

 

Abstract:

Jerry John Nutor is a PhD candidate at Drexel University, College of Nursing and Health Professions. He is registered nurse with Master degree in Nursing and Healthcare leadership from University of California, Davis. His long-term research goal is to develop new ways of improving health care for underrepresented segments of the population, such as rural and urban communities in sub-Saharan Africa.

Biography:

Natalie Eaton has completed her Bachelor of Health Science with a major in Biomedical Science at the University of Southern Queensland. In November 2017 she will complete her Honours in Immunology at the National Centre for Neuroimmunology and Emerging Diseases, Griffith University

Abstract:

Rituximab impedes natural killer (NK) cells function in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) patients: A pilot in vitro investigation outlines the toxicological effect Rituximab has on the cytotoxic activity of NK cells isolated from CFS/ME patients. CFS/ME is a multifactorial disorder commonly characterised by reduced NK cell cytotoxicity. A total of 8 CFS/ME patients (48.63 ± 15.69 years) and 9 non-fatigued controls (NFC) (37.56 ± 11.06 years) were included using the Fukuda case definition. Apoptotic function, lytic proteins (granzyme A and granzyme B) and degranulation markers (CD107a and CD107b) were measured on NK cells using flow cytometric analysis prior to and following overnight incubation with Rituximab at 10µg/ml and 100µg/ml. We reported a significant reduction in NK cell lysis of target K562 cells in CFS/ME patients compared to NFC following incubation with 100µg/ml of Rituximab (p<0.05). Conversely, no significant difference was reported for NFC following incubation with Rituximab. There was also a significant decrease in granzyme B in CFS/ME patients compared to NFC with 100µg/ml of Rituximab prior to K562 cells stimulation (p<0.05). Moreover, a significant increase in CD107a (p<0.05) and CD107b (p<0.01) expression was observed in NFC after stimulation with K562 cells prior to incubation with Rituximab. There was a significant increase in CD107b expression in CFS/ME patients before and after overnight incubation with 100µg/ml of Rituximab prior to K562 cells stimulation (p<0.01). This study showed that Rituximab can have significant impairment on NK cell activity and finally the toxicological effects may worsen patients’ symptoms..