Asthma Control: A Continuing Challenge

The continuing challenge to reduce the burden of occupational asthma.

W ith the reduction in the disease burden from the pneumoconioses in recent years, especially in developed countries, occupational asthma has emerged as the occupational lung disease of greatest importance. It is usually the most common respiratory condition reported in occupational disease surveillance programmes and makes a substantial contribution to the burden of asthma in the community, wi...

Thymomas: a continuing challenge.

Thymic epithelial tumors usually are broadly classified into two main categories: thymoma and thymic carcinoma. In adults, thymomas are the most common primary tumor in the anterior mediastinum.[2] A large variety of paraneoplastic or parathymic syndromes may suggest the presence of a thymoma.[3] Myasthenia gravis coexists in approximately 30% to 40% of patients with thymoma.[4] It is still unc...

Appendicitis: a continuing challenge.

Acute appendicitis is a common surgical emergency in urban setting, of a developing country. The computerised hospital patient database at Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, was utilised to obtain records of all adults with a histologically proven diagnosis of acute appendicitis. A review of patients treated over a 18 month period was undertaken. One hundred and three appendicectomies were ...

Leprosaria – a continuing social challenge

In the early days of leprosy care, with very little in the way of chemical treatment, the recognised way of treating leprosy was to remove people from their homes and put them into leprosaria. The 1897 Leprosy Congress recommended that leprosy could be prevented by isolation. They took as their model for leprosy control the model Hansen had set up in Norway consisting of compulsory registration...

Glioma: a continuing challenge and a mystery?