Lymphatic filariasis (LF) remains a significant public health challenge in many tropical regions where the disease is endemic. In Malaysia, LF is found in small pockets across the country. Asymptomatic carriers play a critical role in transmission but are often undetected. This report details an investigation of an asymptomatic filariasis reported by local health authorities involving an 83-year-old female patient residing in the Bako area, Sarawak. Despite being immobile due to a stroke, routine screening identified an infection with Brugia malayi through microscopy and a rapid diagnostic test. Interestingly, the patient exhibited no acute or chronic symptoms typically associated with filariasis. Contact tracing among her family members revealed that her son was also infected. Both patients received treatment with diethylcarbamazine (DEC) at a dosage of 6 mg/kg, along with albendazole 400 mg and ivermectin 12 mg. Preventive measures included health education, entomological studies, and the implementation of a ‘Test & Treat Filariasis’ program in the village. By documenting both the index case and a secondary asymptomatic case within the same household, the study provides a strong example of how routine screening and contact tracing can identify hidden sources of infection. This adds significant value to LF elimination strategies and emphasizes the importance of community-level surveillance programs. Coordinated efforts by health authorities, including contact tracing, environmental assessments, and targeted treatment, are essential for controlling the spread of LF and safeguarding public health.

METHODOLOGY<p style="text-align: justify;" data-mce-style="text-align: justify;">A descriptive, cross-sectional design was utilized, involving the translation of the SS-QOL from English to Filipino through Collaborative Translation Protocols, which centered on group consensus. Three Filipino language experts rigorously evaluated the initial translation for linguistic and cultural appropriateness. To assess content and face validity, an expert committee of three neurology consultants provided ratings, which were analyzed using the item-level content validity index (i-CVI). Subsequently, a pilot testing phase was conducted with 10 stroke survivors recruited via purposeful sampling in Metro Manila to evaluate the SS-QOL-Filipino’s clarity, layout, understandability and answerability, while also measuring the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) to assess consistency and agreement among itemsp>RESULTS<p style="text-align: justify;" data-mce-style="text-align: justify;">This study successfully developed a stroke-specific HRQOL tool for the Philippines, addressing a critical need for objective measures in patient-centered care. The use of Collaborative Translation Protocols ensured the questionnaire’s conceptual, linguistic and cultural equivalence, incorporating nuances specific to the Filipino context in areas like eating habits, emotional expressions and technological terms. The high face and content validity, coupled with strong consistency and high understandability observed during pilot testing underscore the SS-QOL-Filipino’s suitability for the target population, positioning it as a valuable instrument for both clinical practice and research.p>CONCLUSION<p style="text-align: justify;" data-mce-style="text-align: justify;">The SS-QOL scale was successfully translated into Filipino using Collaborative Translation Protocols and rigorously validated. The SS-QOL-Filipino version demonstrates high content and face validity, strong consistency and excellent understandability and answerability, affirming its status as a reliable and appropriate outcome measure for assessing the QOL among stroke patients in Metro Manila.p>
Human ; Male ; Female ; Middle Aged: 45-64 Yrs Old ; Aged: 65-79 Yrs Old ; Adult: 25-44 Yrs Old ; Life ; Quality Of Life ; Stroke ; Survivors

OBJECTIVES<p style="text-align: justify;" data-mce-style="text-align: justify;">This study aimed to describe the pattern of prescription and laboratory use in the management of infectious acute gastroenteritis (AGE) in children seen in a rural service delivery network (SDN) and to determine their adherence to the 2019 Clinical Practice Guidelines on the Management of Acute Infectious Diarrhea in Children and Adults from the Department of Health (DOH).p>METHODS<p style="text-align: justify;" data-mce-style="text-align: justify;">A descriptive retrospective study was done using the electronic medical records (EMR) of patients less than 19 years old seen by the rural SDN from April 2019-2021 and diagnosed with infectious AGE. Data were extracted on diagnostic and therapeutic management. Adherence to strong CPG recommendations focusing on rehydration, zinc supplementation, rational laboratory use, and antibiotic prescription was chosen as indicator of quality of care. Adherence of less than 70% was defined as low.p>RESULTS<p style="text-align: justify;" data-mce-style="text-align: justify;">There were 227 infectious AGE cases, with 72% diagnosed under non-specific infectious AGE. Fifty two percent (52%) were prescribed with low-osmolarity oral rehydration solutions (ORS), while 74% were given zinc. Stool eISSN 2094-9278 (Online) Copyright: © The Author(s) 2024 Published: September 13, 2024 https://doi.org/10.47895/amp.v58i16.7513 Corresponding author: Paul Johnny C. Diaz, MD Department of Pediatrics Philippine General Hospital University of the Philippines Manila Taft Avenue, Ermita, Manila 1000, Philippines Email: pcdiaz1@up.edu.ph ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-0088-4541 analysis was done in 25% of cases while CBC was done in 20%. Top antibiotics given were metronidazole at 44% and cotrimoxazole at 33%. There was low adherence to prescribing low-osmolarity ORS for rehydration (52%) and to deferring routine antibiotic prescription for non-specific infectious AGE cases (24%). Adherence to deferring routine stool analysis and CBC were relatively high at 73% and 70%, respectively while adherence to antibiotic use for indicated cases was high at 95%.p>CONCLUSION<p style="text-align: justify;" data-mce-style="text-align: justify;">Frequency of diagnostics ordered were low resulting to high adherence rates to recommendations concerning judicious laboratory use. Prescription frequency of appropriate antibiotics and interventions for AGE were low, leading to low adherence rates to recommendations concerning rational antibiotic use and prescription of cornerstone therapies for infectious AGE.
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Diarrhea ; Primary Health Care

Background and Objective: The prevalence of aspirin resistance amongst patients with cardiovascular disease and in the healthy population has been reported to range from 5% to 45%. Lately, rapid platelet function analyzer (RPFA) a point-of-care determination of platelet aggregability has been introduced for rapid determination of aspirin resistant patients. The purpose of this paper is to report the prevalence of aspirin resistance among patients with recurrent non cardioembolic ischemic stroke as detected by RPFA (Ultegra®). Methods: Seventy-seven patients with mean age of 61.2 + 10.4 (range 33-87 years) who developed recurrent non-cardioembolic ischemic stroke were consecutively included in the study. Fifty-seven (74%) were males. Aspirin resistance was determined using the RPFA (Ultegra®) machine. Patients with an aspirin reaction unit (ARU) value above 550 were identified as aspirin resistant. Results: Following this method, the prevalence of aspirin resistance was determined to be 10.4% (95% CI: 1% to17%). Comparison of baseline characteristics between aspirin resistant and aspirin responsive patients did not show any significant difference. Conclusion: The prevalence of aspirin resistance in this study was 10.4% amongst patients with recurrent non-cardioembolic ischemic stroke. The study has shown the feasibility of utilizing RPFA (Ultegra®) machine in detecting aspirin resistance.