Reply #51: Ages, other factors

[sharonking21]

In addition to the above on the large proportion of early cases being children under the age of 5, it would be helpful to know the extent to which these were infants and non-infants. Different kinds of risk factors you would look for in the two groups. I would also look to see if any sex differential among children.

Additionally, I would want to know if there was some other common factor such as:

*living in an institution,

*going to a common ante-natal clinic etc., where they had any kind of invasive procedure, (including injections),

*recent repatriation into Angola from areas further north and east, and,

*not only if recently there were childhood immunizations given in Uige area, but even more importantly,

*whether or not the practice of folk medicine there (as is the case in other parts of Africa) includes the practice of getting injections from non-Western-medicine practitioners.

*Also have to look at any custom that calls for cutting the skin--such as circumcision or scarification to create artful patterns.

The reason I harp so much on injections is that often in Africa, even still in the AIDS era, in the poorer parts, you cannot be sure that injections are given with sterile needles. They often don't have the money to use throwaway needles.