SSMJ May 2021
Editorials
The first 1000 days, the period from conception to 2 years of age, is a crucial time for early childhood growth and development. This period sets the basis for a child’s health and physical, social, cognitive, emotional and behavioural development and is when the child is most dependent on parental care and a healthy environment.
News, Reports and Policy
Everyone who knew or met Richard will remember his jolliness, brilliance, allure, and dedication to making his country and the world a safe place, free of diseases that continue to maim humanity.
Clinical Guidance
Epilepsy is usually a chronic condition. In many regions of the world care is compromised by limited recognition, access to medication and stigma. Quality of life for people with epilepsy and their families can improve substantially when seizures are recognised and better control instituted with the appropriate medication. Recognition and classification of seizures, coupled with evidence-based and rational pharmacological management, can help resolve the many issues around this chronic neurological condition.
Studies have shown that elderly people with co-morbidities are at a higher risk of dying from the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The situation is worse for the 70% of the elderly population who reside in low-and-middle income countries (LMICs) with poor access to good healthcare systems. Elderly patients with cancer in LMICs face numerous barriers to accessing quality health information and services. These barriers have been further exacerbated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“Nurturing newborns in South Sudan” is a series of clinical guidance reviews on newborn care for the South Sudan context. The first part of this series focused on essential care of the newborn giving standard recommendations for the birth, delivery and care of all newborns not in need of emergency lifesaving care immediately after birth.
This paper summarises the main points in the World Health Organization’s ‘Roadmap on human resource strategies to improve newborn care in health facilities in low- and middle-income countries.’
This paper summarises the present recommendations on counselling breastfeeding mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Present research shows that breastfeeding by infected, and vaccinated, mothers is safe. So, the overriding advice to mothers in South Sudan, and elsewhere, is to carry on giving the same messages: to start suckling immediately after birth, to exclusively breastfeed for the first six months and to breastfeed with complementary foods until at least two years of age.
Research
Across South Sudan, communities have extensive experience and knowledge of infectious diseases and epidemic outbreaks. Because South Sudan’s clinical healthcare sector is fragmented, overstretched and under-resourced, South Sudanese people have themselves developed many methods of identifying cases, interrupting infection transmission and quarantining patients as safely as possible within local circumstances.
Case Reports
Breast cancer is the commonest malignancy in women globally. Metastases of advanced breast carcinoma to bones, lungs and liver are well known but spread to maxillary bone presenting as maxillary sinus and palatal swelling is rare. We present a case of advanced breast carcinoma in a female Nigerian with clinical, radiological and histopathological features of lung and right maxillary bone metastases.
Summaries
Five organizations applied for grants to support Sudanese and South Sudanese students studying in Sudanese Universities. There were 70 South Sudanese applicants of which 51 applied for studies in various medical specialties and 19 for studies in other fields.
COVID-19 and Scaling-up Nutrition