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[Demographic profile of the Xavánte Indian population in Sangradouro-Volta Grande, Mato Grosso].

This paper analyzes the demographic profile of the Xavánte population at the Sangradouro-Volta Grande Indigenous Reserve in Mato Grosso, Brazil, from 1993 to 1997. The survey included annual censuses and vital statistics from 7 Xavánte villages. Permanent contact with Brazilian national society, established in the 1940s and 50s, caused a population drop due to epidemics and clashes. In 1995 there were 825 individuals in the community. The crude birth rate (57.7/1,000) and death rate (9.1/1,000) were higher than the national averages. The majority (56%) of the population is under 15 years of age (median: 13 years) and the infant mortality rate is high (87.1 per thousand live births), probably resulting from precarious sanitary conditions in the villages. Other results included the persistence of polygyny; low levels of migration; a dynamic of splits and formation of new villages; traditional housing patterns maintained in the old villages and abandoned in the new ones. The recent demographic recovery in the data from Sangradouro-Volta Grande is similar to that observed in the Pimentel Barbosa community. The study highlights the importance of systematically collecting and analyzing demographic data from indigenous populations.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

ECLAMC: the Latin-American collaborative study of congenital malformations.

DEFINITION: ECLAMC ('Estudio Colaborativo Latino Americano de Malformaciones Congenitas') is a program for the clinical and epidemiological investigation of risk factors in the etiology of congenital anomalies in Latin-American hospitals, using a case-control methodological approach. It is a voluntary agreement among professionals lacking institutional base as well as designated budgets. ECLAMC has been usually funded by research-funding agencies rather than public health ministries. The National Research Councils of Argentina and Brazil have been the main sources of support during its 36 years of existence. Since vital and health statistics are unreliable in South America, ECLAMC collects all the information required for the denominators in a hospital-based sample of births. ECLAMC can be defined as a continental network of persons interested in research and prevention of birth defects. HISTORY AND EVOLUTION: From the institutional point of view, ECLAMC has had headquarters in diverse centers of Argentina and Brazil, but always as an independent research project, without a defined administrative link. ECLAMC began operating in 1967, as an investigation limited to the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and it gradually expanded until covering all the 10 countries of South America as well as Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. Even though ECLAMC has maintained essentially the same original experimental design since 1967, due to the data accumulated by the program, the increasing experience as well as the development in science, technical modifications occurred including a DNA bank and a fully informatized data handling system. Since 1974 ECLAMC has been a founder member of the International Clearinghouse for Birth Defects Monitoring Systems; since 1994 a WHO Collaborating Center for the Prevention of Congenital Malformations, and since 2000 a collaborating member of the NIH Global Netwok for Women's and Children's Health Research. METHODOLOGY: The maternity hospital network of ECLAMC examines around 200,000 births per year. All major and minor anomalies diagnosed at birth in infants weighing 500 g or more are registered according to a manual of procedures. The next non-malformed baby of the same sex born in the same hospital is selected as a control subject for each case. Thus, a one-to-one healthy control group matched by sex, time and place of birth is obtained. As a system of epidemic surveillance, ECLAMC systematically observes the fluctuations in the frequencies of different malformations and, in the case of an alarm for a probable epidemic of a given malformation, at a given moment, and given area, it acts to identify its cause. As termination of pregnancy has severe legal restrictions in South America, prevention of birth defects should concentrate on primary, preconceptional and tertiary measures. Tertiary measures aim to avoid complications of the affected patients from the medical, psychological, and social standpoints.

Biomedical Research↗
PubMed2005

Lysosomal responses as a diagnostic tool for the detection of chronic petroleum pollution at Todos os Santos Bay, Brazil.

Coastal marine environments, especially semienclosed systems such as bays, are under unrelenting stress caused by urban and industrial development. Biomonitoring plays a vital role in strategies to identify, assess, and control stressors. However, due to the magnitude of the challenge there is a demand for new and innovative approaches to provide timely and accessible information to environmental managers and policy makers. The present work aimed to assess hydrocarbon levels in sediments from petroleum-related industrial areas at Todos os Santos Bay (Brazil) and associate them to toxicity-induced responses (neutral red retention (NRR) assay) by the burrowing clam Anomalocardia brasiliana. Surface sediments collected during the dry and rainy seasons were analyzed for aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons. At the control site, hydrocarbon levels were low and mainly biogenic. The aliphatic hydrocarbon ("total unresolved complex mixture," alkanes, and isoprenoids) concentrations indicated a chronic situation with very little "fresh" oil contamination at the oil-related sites. The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons indicated sites moderately contaminated by chronic oil and some pyrolytic input. The effects of those contaminants were assessed by the lysosomal NRR assay applied to A. brasiliana hemocytes. Sediment toxicity at the oil-related sites was evidenced by the lowered capacity of the lysosomes to retain the neutral red dye compared to results from the control site. This research indicates that the NRR assay is a useful and efficient screening technique able to discriminate polluted from clean sites.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Seasonal dynamics of the free-living phase of Anocentor nitens at Pedro Leopoldo, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

An understanding of seasonal dynamics in the free-living phase of the tropical horse tick, Anocentor nitens, is vital for effective control measures. This study examines seasonal changes in the oviposition and incubation periods, eclosion rates, reproductive success, and larval survival in the free-living phase during the period June 1995-July 1997. Ten engorged female ticks, placed individually in wire-gauze tubes, were exposed in a field of Brachiaria decumbens fortnightly each month, and monitored to measure the duration of the various reproductive parameters, and success. Larval abundance was estimated indirectly, through the percentage of females with viable progeny, and directly by using a flagging method. Duration of the free-living cycle ranged from 12.3 weeks (October and December) to 23.5 weeks (March). The cycle was prolonged in cold and dry months. Larval survival was longer from February to July, and reduced from August to February. Oviposition was recorded in all months, and the egg production index ranged from 26.7 to 47.1%. The eclosion rate ranged from 0.1 to 76.6% in different months. Monthly estimates of larval abundance in the pasture were similar for the two methods used, being higher in months with higher temperatures, relative humidity and rainfall.

Acremonium↗
PubMed2003

Formocresol mutagenicity following primary tooth pulp therapy: an in vivo study.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether formocresol, in Buckley's original formulation, is mutagenic in vivo to lymphocyte cultures obtained from the peripheral blood of children aged from 5 to 10 years old. These children were recruited from those attending the dental clinics of Recife City Council and the University of Pernambuco School of Dentistry, Brazil. METHODS: The sample comprised 20 children who had primary teeth with cariously exposed vital pulps. Two venous blood samples were collected (6-8 ml) from each child, the first prior to vital pulpotomy (control group) and the second 24 h after pulpotomy (treated group). This research is a case-control study. The peripheral lymphocytes were grown in a complete culture medium consisting of 78% RPMI 1640 medium (a), supplemented with streptomycin (0.01 mg/ml), penicillin (0.005 ml(-1)), 20% fetal bovine serum (b) and 2% phytohemagglutinin (c). The lymphocytes were assessed for chromosomal aberrations via a previously published method which was modified. The cytogenetic analysis was performed in a blind test, where the slides were codified by an annotator and the scorers did not know which group they were analyzing. For each sample, this envolved the analysis of 200 metaphases. The level of significance adopted in the statistical test was 5.0% (p<0.05). RESULTS: There was no statistically significant difference in clinical doses between the control and treated groups, using Wilcoxon's Signed Ranks test, for the chromosomal aberrations (P=0.251) and for the total chromosomal breaks (P=0.149). Although there were no statistically significant differences between the control and treated groups, Buckley's formocresol was mutagenic for one patient, raising doubt about the desirability of its use for pulpotomies in children. CONCLUSIONS: The results revealed that, from a statistical standpoint, formocresol is not mutagenic. However, further investigations are required, preferably with a larger sample, in patients needing more than one pulpotomy in order to observe whether an increase in the quantity of the drug would increase the quantity of chromosome aberrations and also to verify individual susceptibility to chromosome alterations with the use of formocresol.

Case-Control Studies↗
PubMed2005

Impact of IMCI health worker training on routinely collected child health indicators in Northeast Brazil.

The Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) is a global strategy including improvements in case management at health facilities, strengthening health systems support and improving key family and community practices relevant to child health. In Brazil, IMCI was introduced in 1997, being largely restricted to training health workers in case management. IMCI training of doctors and nurses took place in many municipalities, but implementation of the other two components of IMCI was very limited. We analyze the impact of IMCI health worker training on infant mortality in three states in north-eastern Brazil, by comparing three groups of municipalities over the period 1999 to 2002: 23 with training coverage of 50% or greater, 216 with lower training coverage, and 204 without any IMCI training. Two sources of mortality data are used: vital registration of deaths and births, and the community health workers' (CHW) demographic surveillance system. The latter resulted in a larger number of deaths being reported and in more stable mortality rates over time than the former. Infant mortality rates (IMR) declined rapidly according to both sources of information, during the study period. After adjustment for confounding factors, there was no association between IMCI training coverage and infant mortality measured through either information system. According to the CHW data, the adjusted annual changes were of -7.2 deaths per 1,000 births in the high IMCI training coverage group, -4.6 in the low IMCI training coverage and -5.0 in the no IMCI group (p=0.46). According to vital statistics, the corresponding average annual changes were -5.0, -4.2 and -2.8 deaths per 1,000 births (p=0.16). The negative findings from the Brazil evaluation suggest that IMCI clinical training, in the absence of the other two components of IMCI, and in an area with infant mortality under 50 per 1,000, is unlikely to lead to a measurable impact on mortality.

Brazil↗
PubMed2003

Ultrastructural aspects of the myxosporean Henneguya astyanax n. sp. (Myxozoa: Myxobolidae), a parasite of the Amazonian teleost Astyanax keithi (Characidae).

This study reports light and electron microscopical aspects of a myxosporean found in the gills of the freshwater teleost Astyanax keithi Géry, Planquete & Le Bail, 1996 (family Characidae), collected from the estuarine region of the Amazon River, near Belém, Brazil. The prevalence of infection was 23%. In interlamellar spaces of the gills, ellipsoidal whitish cyst-like plasmodia structures were present, which contained spores. The spores had a spermatozoa-like appearance (47.8 +/- 0.71 microm in total length) with a fusiform body (15.2 +/- 0.77 pm in length, 5.7 +/- 0.71 microm in width and 4.2 +/- 0.31 microm in thickness), and each of the 2 valves presented a tapering tail (32.6 +/- 1.11 microm in length). The valves surrounded a binucleate sporoplasm cell and 2 polar capsules (5.0 +/- 0.13 microm in length, 1.5 +/- 0.07 microm in width) that contained 8 to 9 coils of the polar filament. In the sporoplasm, several unique sporoplasmosomes were visible. A synoptic table of spore measurements of known Brazilian Henneguya species is presented. The spores differed from those of previously described species. Based on spore morphology, it is concluded that this species belongs to the family Myxobolidae, genus Henneguya, and that it constitutes a new species: H. astyanax n. sp.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Multiple cancer sites incidence rates estimation using a multivariate Bayesian model.

BACKGROUND: In Brazil cancer incidence rates have to be estimated from occasional surveys, due to lack of continuous cancer registries. Many estimated rates have very large variances, because only few years of data were collected. When dealing with a single cancer site, it is possible to adopt a Bayesian method which borrows information about the cancer rates from other geographical areas to estimate the cancer rate in a given area. We suggest an additional improvement to this method which explores the correlation between multiple cancer sites rates in a same area and in different areas. METHODS: Our method works with a multivariate vector of different cancer sites rates in several areas and it borrows information from both, across geographical areas and across different cancer sites. We applied our method to data from a survey carried out in 18 Brazilian cities in São Paulo State in 1991. We estimated age and sex indirect standardized incidence rates for the six most common cancers in men and women, and calculated the 95% interval estimation for the incidence rates. RESULTS: The usual indirect standardized incidence rates had very large confidence intervals for many cancers and cities due to small expected number of cases. The use of the multivariate Bayesian method led to more precise estimates. CONCLUSIONS: More precise age-standardized cancer incidence rates can be calculated using data from other cancers. The method is conceptually simple, easy to perform, has low cost, and can improve substantially the estimation of cancer incidence and other vital rates.

Bayes Theorem↗
PubMed2006

No gender difference in effectiveness of smoking cessation treatment in a Brazilian real-life setting.

BACKGROUND: The clinical effectiveness of pharmacotherapy for smoking cessation in real-life settings has yet to be evaluated. OBJECTIVES: To assess the effectiveness of bupropion in general clinical practice for smoking cessation and to identify predictors of failure. METHODS: In an open, non-randomised study, smokers were recruited at the Smoking Cessation Clinics, Hospital Sao Lucas, Porto Alegre, Brazil. Subjects participated in a motivational group meeting, completed a standardised questionnaire and Fagerstrom test, and had their vital signs and exhaled CO registered. All participants received a prescription of bupropion and the same cognitive behaviour therapy. They attended eight weekly individual sessions, then monthly until the sixth month and a final session at month 12. The primary outcome measure was the rate of abstinence at 12 months. The predictor factors studied were sex, age, educational level, nicotine dependence, previous attempts and comorbidities. RESULTS: Among 253 smokers (62.5% females), abstinence rates at 6 months were 20.8% for males and 22.7% for females. The success rates dropped to 13.9% and 14.3% for males and females, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Cognitive therapy plus bupropion for smoking cessation in real-life clinics in Brazil were similar to the efficacy found in clinical trials. No significant gender differences in success rates were found.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

[Cofactors of antiretroviral treatment interruption in cases of adults with AIDS: Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, 1999-2002].

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study is to determine factors associated to the interruption of antiretroviral treatment in adults with AIDS in the State of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. METHODS: This was a population-based study, using data from the State's sources of vital statistics. Interruption was calculated using data on the number of programmed visits to the pharmacies, taking into account the date of the first prescription. It was considered that patients had adhered to the treatment if they came to at least 80% of the programmed visits. RESULTS: The overall percentage for non interruption of the antiretroviral therapy was 64.1%. No association was found with the following: gender, type of exposure, residence, nor with the type of antiretroviral combination prescribed. After multivariate analysis, significant associations continued to be found between interruption and in-hospital stay, use of drugs, psychiatric treatment, low level of education and age ranging from 25 to 34 years. CONCLUSIONS: These results point towards significant associations between interruption of antiretroviral treatment and the beginning of antiretroviral therapy during the in-hospital stay, the use of legal or illegal drugs, a history of psychiatric treatment, low level of education, and age ranging from 25 to 34 years.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Homicide trends and characteristics--Brazil, 1980-2002.

Brazil is the largest and most populous country in South America (2002 population: approximately 175 million) (Brazilian Geography and Statistics Institute [BGSI], unpublished data, 2004). Although life expectancy in Brazil has increased and rates of infant mortality have decreased as a result of reductions in infectious disease mortality, homicide and other forms of injury-related mortality have increased as a proportion of overall mortality. Homicide is now the leading cause of death for persons aged 15-44 years. To describe trends and characteristics of homicides countrywide and in Sĕo Paulo city (2000 population: approximately 10.4 million) (BGSI, unpublished data, 2004), the State Health Department of Sĕo Paulo (SHDSP) analyzed vital statistics and census data for 1980-2002. This report summarizes the results of that analysis, which indicated that the homicide rate in Brazil more than doubled during this period. Since 2001, Brazilian authorities have implemented several initiatives to reduce the number of homicides, including a law that controls gun ownership and prohibits anyone other than police and members of the armed forces from carrying guns. However, homicides among adolescents and young adults remain a substantial public health problem in Brazil, and additional prevention strategies that target young persons are needed.

Adolescent↗