BackgroundThe draft Global Technical Strategy for malaria aims to eliminate malaria from at least 10 countries by 2020. Yemen and Saudi Arabia remain the last two countries on the Arabian Peninsula yet to achieve elimination. Over the last 50 years, systematic efforts to control malaria in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has successfully reduced malaria cases to a point where malaria is now constrained largely to Jazan Province, the most south-western area along the Red Sea. The progress toward elimination in this province is reviewed between 2000 and 2014.MethodsData were obtained from the Ministry of Health case-reporting systems, activity reports, unpublished consultants reports, and relevant scientific published papers. Sub-provincial population data were obtained the national household censuses undertaken in 2004 and 2010. Rainfall data were obtained from the Meteorological Department in Jazan.ResultsBetween 2000 and 2014 there were 5522 locally acquired cases of malaria and 9936 cases of imported malaria. A significant reduction in locally acquired malaria cases was observed from 2000 to 2014, resulting in an average annual incidence (2010–2014) of 0.3 cases per 10,000 population. Conversely imported cases, since 2000, remain consistent and higher than locally acquired cases, averaging between 250 and 830 cases per year. The incidence of locally acquired cases is heterogeneous across the Province, with only a few health districts contributing the majority of the cases. The overall decline in malaria case incidence can be attributed to coincidental expansion of control efforts and periods of exceptionally low rainfall.ConclusionsJazan province is poised to achieve malaria elimination. There is a need to change from a policy of passive case detection to reactively and proactively detecting infectious reservoirs that require new approaches to surveillance. These should be combined with advanced epidemiological tools to improve the definitions of epidemiological receptive and hotspot malaria risk mapping. The single largest threat currently remains the risks posed by imported infections from Yemen.

Summary In a comparative study of pre-and postmenopausal women with benign and malignant breast disease, a number of differences were observed in circulating plasma prolactin and lipid concentrations. Plasma lipids, phospholipids, triglycerides, cholesterol and free fatty acids were all higher in blood obtained from breast cancer patients prior to surgery. HDL-Cholesterol levels were significantly lower in these patients. These differences remained when the patient groups were sub-divided according to menopausal status. Plasma prolactin concentrations were also found to be higher in cancer compared with non-cancer patients, this effect being more marked in premenopausal than in postmenopausal patients. Premenopausal patients with invasive or poorly differentiated disease had significantly higher prolactin levels than those with non-invasive disease. No correlations were found between plasma prolactin and any of the lipid fractions.

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) prevalence is increasing in Arabian Gulf countries and Saudi Arabia is ranked as the 7th country world widely estimated to have the highest numbers of people with diabetes in 2000 and 2030. Objectives: This study intended to estimate the prevalence, risk factors of diabetes among adult population of Jazan region, Saudi Arabia. Methods: Observational cross sectional survey conducted among adult Saudi population aged 15 years of age and over who attended eight Primary Health Care Centers (PHCCs) in Jazan region. Standardized questionnaire as well as diabetic registry was utilized for this research. The questionnaire involved risk factors of DM and socio-demographic variables. Statistical analysis involved: chi-square test (or Fisher exact test where applicable) was used to evaluate the prevalence of DM among different subgroups. The crude odds ratios (OR) were estimated by univariate analysis to observe the association of each variable with DM. Results: The overall prevalence of DM among study participants was found to be 12.3% (95% CI: 10.9-13.8). The prevalence of DM according to gender showed that women are of significantly higher prevalence 19.0% with confidence interval (95% C.I. 15.9-22.6), compared with only 9.8% for male (95% CI. 8.4-11.4). Participant's body mass index, age, family history of diabetes and daily exercise and work involved physical activities that showed a significant association with DM. Conclusion: Increased prevalence of diabetes calls for urgent steps towards prevention and health promotion, programs designed to reduce its burden.

Background. Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is an obligate intracellular protozoan parasite of worldwide distribution. There is limited information about the seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis in the southern area of Saudi Arabia. The current study was carried out to determine the prevalence of T. gondii in pregnant women in Jazan province. Materials and Methods. The study was conducted between January and June 2013 and included 195 pregnant women, data on sociodemographic and predisposing factors were collected from each participant. Venous blood samples were collected following standard operating procedures. Serological analysis for latent toxoplasmosis (levels of IgG) and active toxoplasmosis (IgM) was done using Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). Results. The overall seroprevalence of T. gondii in the study area was 24.1%. The seroprevalence of anti-Toxoplasma IgG was 20% (39 out of 195), whereas IgM seropositivity was 6.2% (12 out of 195). Only 4 pregnant women tested positive for both IgG and IgM. The highest IgG and IgM seroprevalence was among the study participants aged 35 to 39 years (13.5% and 35.1%, resp.). The seropositivity rate of T. gondii-specific antibodies was higher among pregnant women from the urban areas than those from rural communities (7.4% versus 0% and 21% versus 15.4% for IgM and IgG, resp.). Conclusions. The seroprevalence of T. gondii was high in pregnant woman in Jazan. The prevalence of toxoplasmosis increases with increase of age. Awareness health education program in Jazan needs to be maintained and developed to targeted pregnant women.

BackgroundNowadays, many medical schools include training in disaster medicine in undergraduate studies. This study evaluated the efficacy of a disaster medicine curriculum recently designed for Saudi Arabian medical students.MethodsParticipants were 15 male and 14 female students in their fourth, fifth or sixth year at Jazan University Medical School, Saudi Arabia. The course was held at the Research Center in Emergency and Disaster Medicine and Computer Sciences Applied to the Medical Practice in Novara, Italy.ResultsThe overall mean score on a test given before the course was 41.0 % and it increased to 67.7 % on the post-test (Wilcoxon test for paired samples: z = 4.71, p < 0.0001). There were no significant differences between the mean scores of males and females, or between students in their fourth, fifth or sixth year of medical school.ConclusionsThese results show that this curriculum is effective for teaching disaster medicine to undergraduate medical students. Adoption of this course would help to increase the human resources available for dealing with disaster situations.