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SummaryBackground: Few studies have examined injury-related deaths among women in Bangladesh. We did a case-finding study to identify causes and the impact of intentional and unintentional injury-related deaths among women aged 10-50 years in Bangladesh.Methods: Between 1996 and 1997, health care and other service providers at 4751 health facilities throughout Bangladesh were interviewed about their knowledge of deaths among women aged 10-50 years. In addition, at all public facilities providing inpatient service, medical records of women who died during the study period were reviewed. The reported circumstances surrounding each death were carefully reviewed to attribute the most likely cause of death.Findings: 28 998 deaths among women aged 10-50 years were identified in our study, and, of these, 6610 (23%) were thought to be caused by intentional or unintentional injuries. About half (3317) of the injury deaths were attributable to suicide, 352 (5%) to homicide, 1100 (17%) to accidental injuries, and the intent was unknown for 1841 (28%) deaths. The unadjusted rate of suicides were higher in the Khulna administrative division (27.0 per 100000) than the other four administrative divisions of Bangladesh (range 3.5-11.3 per 100000). Poisoning (n=3971) was the commonest cause of injury-related death--60% of all injury deaths (6610) and 14% of all deaths (28998). Other common causes of injury deaths in order of frequency were hanging or suffocation, road traffic accidents, burns, drowning, physical assault, firearm or sharp instrument injury, and snake or animal bite.Interpretation: [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors discuss a study by Carine Ronsmans and colleagues which assessed the effects of loss of parents on the survival of children in rural Bangladesh. They claim that the study was able to show a devastating effect of the death of the mother on children's survival. They argue that although efforts to reduce maternal mortality are complex, agreed strategies exist for reducing maternal mortality in developing countries, such as Bangladesh.

Worldwide approximately 6 lac new patients are diagnosed annually with squamous cell head and neck cancer. RT and surgery are the major curative modalities in treatment of head and neck cancer. With the currently available photon technology, sparing of nontarget tissues is frequently difficult, as target volumes in head and neck cancers are generally large, complex in shape, and surrounded by critical normal structures which may lead to higher incidence of toxicities. So patients suffer from both acute and late toxicities during and following radiotherapy like mucositis, xerostomia, radiation dermatitis, trismus etc. which largely compromise their qualities of life. Hence necessitates the emergence of new and modified radiation techniques along with some pharmacological approaches and life-style modifications to combat this problem. Over the last few decades, conventional RT which used simpler rectangular treatment fields has changed significantly to conformal RT techniques. The use of 3D CRT, IMRT, IGRT, Adaptive RT, VMAT, Proton beam therapy etc. and improved imaging techniques for target volume and organ at risk delineation have accompanied efficacy improvements in decreasing acute and late toxicities by sparing normal tissues and hence dose escalation to tumors. Along with advancements in RT techniques, some simple life-style modifying education and a few pharmacological approaches also help to alleviate poor quality of life of these patients. In this context, this article will focus on some of these technical advancements along with other general approaches to minimize post-RT complications in head-neck cancer patients. The scope of improved treatment delivery in the perspective of Bangladesh will also be mentioned briefly [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which details the accuracy and precision of sonographic fetal biometry performed by nine paramedics from rural Bangladesh. It notes that 180 women, at 7 to 31 weeks' gestation were the participants of this study. Measurements of each fetus were taken by a highly-trained medical doctor and paramedics. It reveals that both inter-and intraobserver measurement errors were within the range reported in literature of studies conducted by technical staff and medical doctors.