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Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence and associated factors for short birth spacing among Malay women who delivered at Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM), Kota Bharu, Kelantan. Design: A cross-sectional study conducted from June to November 2005.Materials and methods: Three hundred and fifty five women were selected by systematic random sampling. An interview-guided questionnaire that included information on socio-demographic, obstetric, knowledge and attitude on family planning was conducted to the women and self-administered questionnaire was given to their husbands. Simple and multiple logistic regression analysis were used to determine the associated factors for short birth spacing.Results: The median birth spacing was 26 (IQR 28) months. The prevalence of short birth spacing was 45.1% (95%CI: 40.4, 49.8). Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that women are less likely to have short birth spacing with every one year increase in age (OR=0.86, 95%CI 0.80, 0.92), women with short birth spacing had 1.46 times odds of every one unit increase in parity (OR=1.46, 95%CI 1.22, 1.76), women with short birth spacing had 6.18 times odds of breastfeeding their babies for less than 1 year (OR=6.18, 95%CI 3.59, 10.62), women with short birth spacing had 3.95 times odds of not using family planning methods between the second last and the last delivery (OR=3.95, 95%CI 2.21, 7.05) and women with a history of abortion between the second last and the last delivery were less likely to have short birth spacing compared to those with no history of abortion (OR=0.09, 95%CI 0.02, 0.34). However, women's knowledge and attitude on family planning as well as husband's factors were not significantly associated with short birth spacing.Conclusion: The prevalence of short birth spacing among Malay women who delivered at HUSM was high. Therefore, birth spacing should be given more priority in the maternal, child health, family planning and nutrition programmes at all levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: As the impacts of diabetes-induced reproductive damage are now evident in young people, we are now in urgent need to devise new ways to protect and enhance the reproductive health of diabetic people. The present study aimed to evaluate the protective effects of enalapril (an ACE inhibitor) and paricalcitol (a vitamin D analog), individually or in combination, on streptozotocin (STZ)-diabetes-induced testicular dysfunction in rats and to identify the possible mechanisms for this protection., Material and Methods: This study was carried out on 50 male Sprague-Dawley rats; 10 normal rats were allocated as a non-diabetic control group. A total of 40 rats developed diabetes after receiving a single dose of STZ; then, the diabetic rats were divided into four groups of equivalent numbers assigned as diabetic control, enalapril-treated, paricalcitol-treated, and combined enalapril-and-paricalcitol-treated groups. The effects of mono and combined therapy with paricalcitol and enalapril on testicular functions, sperm activity, glycemic state oxidative stress, and inflammatory parameters, as well as histopathological examinations, were assessed in comparison with the normal and diabetic control rats., Results: As a result of diabetes induction, epididymal sperm count, sperm motility, serum levels of testosterone, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) as well as luteinizing hormone (LH), and the antioxidant enzyme activities, were significantly decreased, while abnormal sperm (%), insulin resistance, nitric oxide (NO), malondialdehyde (MDA), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) were significantly increased, along with severe distortion of the testicular structure. Interestingly, treatment with paricalcitol and enalapril, either alone or in combination, significantly improved the sperm parameters, increased antioxidant enzyme activities in addition to serum levels of testosterone, FSH, and LH, reduced insulin resistance, IL-6, and TNF-α levels, and finally ameliorated the diabetes-induced testicular oxidative stress and histopathological damage, with somewhat superior effect for paricalcitol monotherapy and combined therapy with both drugs compared to monotherapy with enalapril alone., Conclusions: Monotherapy with paricalcitol and its combination therapy with enalapril has a somewhat superior effect in improving diabetes-induced testicular dysfunction (most probably as a result of their hypoglycemic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-apoptotic properties) compared with monotherapy with enalapril alone in male rats, recommending a synergistic impact of both drugs.

The Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population surveillance system provides data about notifiable communicable diseases. This study aimed to provide information for decision-making to reduce the burden of communicable diseases in Egypt by analysis of the surveillance data for 2006-2013 to identify trends in the incidence of the diseases by governorate, season, age and sex. Composite risk-index scores were estimated to rank the 27 Egyptian governorates into 3 groups: high, medium and low risk. The 15 diseases with the highest incidence were food and waterborne diseases (5 diseases), vaccine-preventable diseases (7 diseases) and others, e.g. hepatitis C infection. Bloody diarrhoea and typhoid had the high incidence for 2006-2013. There were 11 high-risk governorates; Ismailia had the highest risk-index score. The findings suggest the need for specific interventions related to environmental sanitation and improving the childhood immunization programme, particularly in the high-risk governorates.