Medicine
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This repository contains the published and unpublished research of the Faculty of Medicine by the staff members of the faculty
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Item Use of a public-private partnership in malaria elimination efforts in Sri Lanka; a case study(BioMed Central, 2018) Fernando, D.; Wijeyaratne, P.; Wickremasinghe, R.; Abeyasinghe, R.R.; Galappaththy, G.N.L.; Wickremasinghe, R.; Hapugoda, M.; Abeyewickreme, W.; Rodrigo, C.BACKGROUND: In special circumstances, establishing public private partnerships for malaria elimination may achieve targets faster than the state sector acting by itself. Following the end of the separatist war in Sri Lanka in 2009, the Anti Malaria Campaign (AMC) of Sri Lanka intensified malaria surveillance jointly with a private sector partner, Tropical and Environmental Diseases and Health Associates Private Limited (TEDHA) with a view to achieving malaria elimination targets by 2014. METHODS: This is a case study on how public private partnerships can be effectively utilized to achieve malaria elimination goals. TEDHA established 50 Malaria Diagnostic Laboratories and 17 entomology surveillance sentinel sites in consultation with the AMC in areas difficult to access by government officials (five districts in two provinces affected by war). RESULTS: TEDHA screened 994,448 individuals for malaria, of which 243,867 were screened at mobile malaria clinics as compared to 1,102,054 screened by the AMC. Nine malaria positives were diagnosed by TEDHA, while the AMC diagnosed 103 malaria cases in the same districts in parallel. Over 13,000 entomological activity days were completed. Relevant information was shared with AMC and the data recorded in the health information system. CONCLUSIONS: A successful public-private partnership model for malaria elimination was initiated at a time when the health system was in disarray in war ravaged areas of Sri Lanka. This ensured a high annual blood examination rate and screening of vulnerable people in receptive areas. These were important for certification of malaria-free status which Sri Lanka eventually received in 2016.Item Contribution of the private sector healthcare service providers to malaria diagnosis in a prevention of re-introduction setting(BioMed Central, 2016) Fernando, S.D.; Dharmawardena, P.; Epasinghe, G.; Senanayake, N.; Rodrigo, C.; Premaratna, R.; Wickremasinghe, R.BACKGROUND: Sri Lanka is currently in the prevention of re-introduction phase of malaria. The engagement of the private sector health care institutions in malaria surveillance is important. The purpose of the study was to determine the number of diagnostic tests carried out, the number of positive cases identified and the referral system for diagnosis in the private sector and to estimate the costs involved. METHODS: This prospective study of private sector laboratories within the Colombo District of Sri Lanka was carried out over a 6-month period in 2015. The management of registered private sector laboratories was contacted individually and the purpose of the study was explained. A reporting format was developed and introduced for monthly reporting. RESULTS: Forty-one laboratories were eligible to be included in the study and 28 participated by reporting data on a monthly basis. Excluding blood bank samples and routine testing for foreign employment, malaria diagnostic tests were carried out on 973 individuals during the 6-month period and nine malaria cases were identified. In 2015, a total of 36 malaria cases were reported from Sri Lanka. Of these, 24 (67 %) were diagnosed in the Colombo District and 50 % of them were diagnosed in private hospitals. CONCLUSIONS: An equal number of cases were diagnosed from the private sector and government sector in the Colombo District in 2015. The private sector being a major contributor in the detection of imported malaria cases in the country should be actively engaged in the national malaria surveillance system.Item A Diagnostic scoring model for Leptospirosis in resource limited settings(Public Library of Science, 2016) Rajapakse, S.; Weeratunga, P.; Niloofa, R.; Fernando, N.; de Silva, N.L.; Rodrigo, C.; Maduranga, S.; Nandasiri, N.; Premawansa, S.; Karunanayake, L.; de Silva, H.J.; Handunnetti, S.Leptospirosis is a zoonotic infection with significant morbidity and mortality. The clinical presentation of leptospirosis is known to mimic the clinical profile of other prevalent tropical fevers. Laboratory confirmation of leptospirosis is based on the reference standard microscopic agglutination test (MAT), direct demonstration of the organism, and isolation by culture and DNA detection by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification. However these methods of confirmation are not widely available in resource limited settings where the infection is prevalent, and reliance is placed on clinical features for provisional diagnosis. In this prospective study, we attempted to develop a model for diagnosis of leptospirosis, based on clinical features and standard laboratory test results. METHODS: The diagnostic score was developed based on data from a prospective multicentre study in two hospitals in the Western Province of Sri Lanka. All patients presenting to these hospitals with a suspected diagnosis of leptospirosis, based on the WHO surveillance criteria, were recruited. Confirmed disease was defined as positive genus specific MAT (Leptospira biflexa). A derivation cohort and a validation cohort were randomly selected from available data. Clinical and laboratory manifestations associated with confirmed leptospirosis in the derivation cohort were selected for construction of a multivariate regression model with correlation matrices, and adjusted odds ratios were extracted for significant variables. The odds ratios thus derived were subsequently utilized in the criteria model, and sensitivity and specificity examined with ROC curves. RESULTS: A total of 592 patients were included in the final analysis with 450 (180 confirmed leptospirosis) in the derivation cohort and 142 (52 confirmed leptospirosis) in the validation cohort. The variables in the final model were: history of exposure to a possible source of leptospirosis(adjusted OR = 2.827; 95% CI = 1.517-5.435; p = 0.001) serum creatinine > 150 micromol/l (adjusted OR = 2.735; 95% CI = 1.374-4.901; p = 0.001), neutrophil differential percentage > 80.0% of total white blood cell count (adjusted OR 2.163; 95% CI = 1.309-3.847; p = 0.032), serum bilirubin > 30 micromol/l (adjusted OR = 1.717; 95% CI 0.938-3.456; p = 0.049) and platelet count < 85,000/mm3 (adjusted OR = 2.350; 95% CI = 1.481-4.513; p = 0.006). Hosmer-Lemeshow test for goodness of fit was 0.931. The Nagelkerke R2 was 0.622. The area under the curve (AUC) was noted as 0.762. A score value of 14 reflected a sensitivity of 0.803, specificity of 0.602, a PPV of 0.54, NPV of 0.84, a positive LR of 2.01 and a negative LR of 0.32. CONCLUSIONS: The above diagnostic model for diagnosis of leptospirosis is suggested for use in clinical settings. It should be further validated in clinical practice.