International Research Journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences

26-29

Authors: Nedal Ghuneim and Majdi Dheir

Mumps is a contagious disease occurring worldwide and affecting all age groups. There is no specific treatment for mumps. Mumps can be prevented by immunization using MMR. The study aimed to describe the epidemiology of the mumps outbreak, to identify the community factors favoring a mumps outbreak and to describe the public health actions taken and the lessons learned during the outbreak. This study was a cross sectional study including all notified cases of mumps in Gaza strip (GS) during the year 2013. During the year 2013, a total of 1891 clinically diagnosed mumps cases were reported with an overall incidence of 116/100000. The majority of cases 1181 (62.5%) were male. Age varied from one year to 83 years with a mean age of 13.7 years. 1708 (90.3%) of cases occurred among children aged 6 to 15 years who received only one dose of mumps vaccine. Geographically, the disease occurred mainly in Khan-Younes governorate (53.4%) followed by Mid-Zone governorate (28%). Different complications were reported among 133 (7%) cases. These complications were orchitis (3.5%), pancreatitis (2%) and meningitis (1.5%). Number of deaths has been reported. The MMR vaccine is effective in most individuals but it does not give a complete protection. The majority of reported cases occurred in population who received one dose of mumps vaccine reflecting insufficient seroconversion rate in this group. Introducing a second dose of mumps vaccine in the year 2009 in the expanded program of immunization (EPI) clearly improved the rate of seroconversion based on the small number of reported cases among children born after that date. In conclusion, the main cause of this outbreak was the incomplete vaccine efficacy. Vaccination coverage, waning immunity and cold chain do not have a role in this outbreak. In this situation, a national immunization campaign must be implemented and a continuation of two doses of mumps vaccine policy is recommended. Keywords: Contagious disease, immunization, epidemiology, public health, mumps virus.

35-39

Authors: Khaled Qabaha, Wael Abu Hassan, Ameen Bsharat, Mohammad Mousa and Yousef Horani

Breast cancer is one of the most common invasive cancers in women. Factors contributing to breast cancer include demographic, clinical, social and psychological ones. This study was set out to highlight to how much extent the investigated demographic and clinical factors are associated with breast cancer. The study was carried on 200 patients who are suffering from breast cancer. Of the total, 197 patients were females, and the 3 remaining were males. Data was collected from the government hospitals in middle and northern parts of the West Bank, Palestine. For analyzing the data, descriptive stat and binary logistic regression were executed using SPSS 20. The mean age of patients was 48.9 (SD = 10.7). Estrogen receptors (ER) and progesterone receptors (PR), abortion, psychological distress, marital status, and career of patients have been found as predicting factors for breast cancer. In conclusion, breast cancer is a major threat for Palestinian women and healthy living. However, increasing awareness of this disease and its predictors and related risk factors such as abortion, psychological distress and others may limit such a disease. Also, implementation of a breast cancer screening program may also help in curing this disease in its early stages. Keywords: Breast cancer, invasive, psychological distress, risk factors.

44-50

Authors: Osama Al-Amer

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a plasma cell malignancy that causes extensive osteolytic bone disease mainly in the skull. To support our understanding of MM bone disease, preclinical mouse models have been developed. C57BL/KaLwRijHsd mice develop a high frequency of monoclonal proliferative B-cell disorders. 5T33MM and 5TGM1 are the best characterized as myeloma models and used in most recent studies in this area. In this study, a combination of high-resolution confocal microscopy and two-photon video imaging was used to examine of individual myeloma cells in the calvarial bone marrow of C57BL/KaLwRijHsd mice. This study demonstrated that myeloma cells home and reside in the calvarial bone after 3 days of injection via mouse tail. In addition, this study showed a significant increase in the number of myeloma cells that colonize and home in the interparietal bone comparing to frontal and parietal bones. This study provides evidence that the micro-anatomical site in the interparietal bone may have unique characteristics to study myeloma colonization in bone and to study anti-myeloma therapies, particularly those targeting myeloma bone disease. Keywords: Myeloma, bone microenvironment, homing, calvariae, interparietal bone.