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Perceived Risk of Dengue in Ones' Living Environment as a Determinant of Behavior Change through Social Mobilization and Communication: Evidence from a High Risk Area in Sri Lanka

Banneheke H, Paranavitane S, Jayasuriya V, Banneheka S

J Arthropod Borne Dis, 2016 Sep;10(3):392-402.
PMID: 27308297

The aim of this study was to assess community knowledge and behavioral impact of the social mobilization and communication strategy applied in a dengue high-risk area in Sri Lanka.
Fulltext Validation of wet mount microscopy against Trichomonas culture among women of reproductive age group in Western province, Sri Lanka

Banneheke H, Fernandopulle R, Gunasekara U, Barua A, Fernando N, Wickremasinghe R

Trop Biomed, 2015 Jun;32(2):192-7.
PMID: 26691246

Wet mount microscopy is the most commonly used diagnostic method for trichomoniasis in clinical diagnostic services all over the world including Sri Lanka due to its availability, simplicity and is relatively inexpensive. However, Trichomonas culture and PCR are the gold standard tests. Unfortunately, neither the culture nor PCR is available for the diagnosis of trichomoniasis in Sri Lanka. Thus, it is important to validate the wet mount microscopy as it is the only available diagnostic test and has not been validated to date in Sri Lanka. The objective was to evaluate the validity and reliability of wet mount microscopy against gold standard Trichomonas culture among clinic based population of reproductive age group women in Western province, Sri Lanka. Women attending hospital and institutional based clinics were enrolled. They were interviewed and high vaginal swabs were taken for laboratory diagnosis by culture and wet mount microscopy. There were 601 participants in the age group of 15-45 years. Wet mount microscopy showed 68% sensitivity, 100% specificity, 100% positive (PPV) and 98% negative predictive values (NPV) (P=0.001, kappa=0.803) respectively against the gold standard culture. The area under the ROC curve was 0.840. Sensitivity of wet mount microscopy is low. However it has high validity and reliability as a specific diagnostic test for trichomoniasis. If it is to be used among women of reproductive age group in Western province, Sri Lanka, a culture method could be adopted as a second test to confirm the negative wet mount for symptomatic patients.
Controlled delivery of the antiprotozoal agent (tinidazole) from intravaginal polymer matrices for treatment of the sexually transmitted infection, trichomoniasis

Fernando HV, Chan LL, Dang N, Santhanes D, Banneheke H, Nalliah S, et al.

Pharm Dev Technol, 2019 Mar;24(3):348-356.
PMID: 29799300 DOI: 10.1080/10837450.2018.1481430

Microporous polymeric matrices prepared from poly(ɛ-caprolactone) [PCL] were evaluated for controlled vaginal delivery of the antiprotozoal agent (tinidazole) in the treatment of the sexually transmitted infection, trichomoniasis. The matrices were produced by rapidly cooling co-solutions of PCL and tinidazole in acetone to -80 °C to induce crystallisation and hardening of the polymer. Tinidazole incorporation in the matrices increased from 1.4 to 3.9% (w/w), when the drug concentration in the starting PCL solution was raised from 10 to 20% (w/w), giving rise to drug loading efficiencies up to 20%. Rapid 'burst release' of 30% of the tinidazole content was recorded over 24 h when the PCL matrices were immersed in simulated vaginal fluid. Gradual drug release occurred over the next 6 days resulting in delivery of around 50% of the tinidazole load by day 7 with the released drug retaining antiprotozoal activity at levels almost 50% that of the 'non-formulated' drug in solution form. Basic modelling predicted that the concentration of tinidazole released into vaginal fluid in vivo from a PCL matrix in the form of an intravaginal ring would exceed the minimum inhibitory concentration against Trichomonas vaginalis. These findings recommend further investigation of PCL matrices as intravaginal devices for controlled delivery of antiprotozoal agents in the treatment and prevention of sexually transmitted infections.
Fulltext Student preparedness characteristics important for clinical learning: perspectives of supervisors from medicine, pharmacy and nursing

Banneheke H, Nadarajah VD, Ramamurthy S, Sumera A, Ravindranath S, Jeevaratnam K, et al.

BMC Med Educ, 2017 Aug 08;17(1):130.
PMID: 28789645 DOI: 10.1186/s12909-017-0966-4

BACKGROUND: Student perspectives of clinical preparedness have been studied in the literature, but the viewpoint of supervisors is limited. Hence, the aim was to examine the perspective of supervisors on the characteristics of health professional students important for preparedness for clinical learning.
METHODS: This was a descriptive, questionnaire-based, cross-sectional study conducted at three higher education institutions in Malaysia. A previously published questionnaire with 62 characteristics was adopted with modifications after pre-testing. Descriptive analysis was completed for the demographic data. The sample was grouped based on health profession, clinical practice experience and teaching experience for further analysis. Non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test was selected to evaluate differences in mean ranks to assess the null hypothesis that the medians are equal across the groups. Kruskal-Wallis post-hoc pair wise comparison was performed on samples with significant differences across samples.
RESULTS: The sample was comprised of 173 supervisors from medicine (55, 32%), pharmacy (84, 48%) and nursing (34, 20%). The majority (63%) of the supervisors were currently in professional practice. A high percentage (40%) of supervisors had less than 4 years of teaching experience. The highest theme ratings were for willingness (6.00) and professionalism (5.90). There was a significant difference (p