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Behavioural aspects of the control of parasitic diseases.

Human behaviour has been largely neglected in research on the parasitic diseases, in part because of the long-standing separation of the behavioural disciplines from the physical and biomedical sciences. Some of the reasons for the persistence of this "intellectual discontinuity" are discussed. The paper is principally concerned with the prospects for greater use of the methods and orientations of the behavioural sciences in parasitic disease research and control programmes. Behavioural research tends to fall into two categories employing, on the one hand, survey research and epidemiological methods and, on the other, participant observation and interviewing in depth. These approaches are shown to be complementary-equally useful and necessary. Various categories of health-related behaviour and kinds of research objective are reviewed in the following sections. Special attention is given to psychosocial cost-benefit studies, to analyses of control sectors, and to the formulation of a control philosophy. Finally, some specific behavioural research needs are discussed for some of the parasitic diseases of priority in the UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases-schistosomiasis, filariasis, American and African trypanosomiases, and malaria.

Attitude to Health↗

[Tropical parasitic diseases in children].

All children returning from countries where parasitic diseases are endemic should be investigated for one or several of these diseases according to the region visited and the duration of the visit. Investigations should include at least a parasitological examination of the stools, sometimes completed by a search for urinary schistosomiasis and, at the slightest suspicion, an examination of the eye. The gastrointestinal and percutaneous modes of transmission of parasitoses are such that children are particularly at risk. The most frequently encountered diseases are ankylostomiasis, anguilluliasis, amoebiasis, urinary schistomiasis and filariasis. Side by side with these strictly tropical parasitoses, one may find massive infestation with ascarides and lamblias. Effective and well tolerated treatments are available for most of these diseases, but advice on prophylactic measures is essential to reduce the risk of contamination.

Child↗

Sociocultural factors in the control and prevention of parasitic diseases.

Control and prevention of parasitic disease depends on an adequate knowledge of interactions among factors such as human behavior, the environment, and the life cycles of parasites. Sociocultural factors in large part determine transmission and persistence of parasites. The main determinants are poverty, low educational level, deficiencies in home technologies, high demographic density, and ruralism. Selected interventions designed to improve any of these situations may fail if they are applied in an isolated manner. The holistic implementation of interventions has proved successful in the control and prevention of parasitic infections in several parts of the word. The implementation of several kinds of interventions simultaneously, that is, a holistic approach, combined with an awareness of a society's infrastructure, can produce favorable results. For such an awareness--when it provokes action--can improve the overall quality of life.

Adolescent↗

[New approaches to the prevention of human parasitic diseases].

To improve the efficacy of measures for parasitic diseases prevention the author recommends, besides routine methods, such as detection and treatment of patients and health educational activities, preventive and current sanitary parasitological survey of environmental objects to be carried out on a wider scale. Parasitologic indexes and their quantitative criteria are presented, as are the basic sanitary and administrative documents which should be the guidelines for parasitologists, sanitary physicians, and epidemiologists in preventive and current sanitary surveillance of environmental objects at foci of parasitic diseases.

Agriculture↗

Economic evaluation of parasitic diseases: a critique of the internal and external validity of published studies.

It was estimated that in 1990, major parasitic diseases accounted for 11.7% of the disease burden from communicable disease. As advances in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of parasitic diseases are made and implemented, there is a growing economic literature to help decision-makers choose the most efficient control method. The aim of this paper is to identify, describe and analyse the available published data on the efficiency of control strategies against parasitic diseases. Internal validity is assessed through the quality of economic evaluations over time using a series of standard questions, and external validity is assessed in terms of the potential to extrapolate results to other settings. This leads to a discussion of the legitimacy and feasibility of pooling data or results from studies for priority setting in the health sector, resulting in three recommendations: to increase the coverage of economic evaluations for parasitic diseases and types of interventions; to improve the internal validity of studies through guidelines and review procedures; and to explore the external validity of research results by examining their predictive validity across settings.

Child↗

[Mortality due to infectious and parasitic diseases in the elderly in Brazil].

OBJECTIVE: To describe the mortality due to infectious and parasitic diseases in persons over 65 years of age in all of Brazil and in individual states and to study the association between that mortality due to these causes and specific socioeconomic variables over the period from 1980 to 1995. METHODS: Data were obtained from Brazil's national Mortality Information System. Standardized mortality rates were calculated for tuberculosis, Chagas' disease, and sepsis. The relative contribution of these causes of death to overall mortality was also calculated. The study also analyzed the relationship between mortality rates and gender and the following socioeconomic variables: per capita gross domestic product; number of hospital beds per inhabitant; proportion of the total population living in urban areas; number of benefits provided per capita by the social welfare system; number of deaths reported for every 100 hospitalizations; and life expectancy at birth. A normal multiple linear regression model was used for this analysis. RESULTS: There were no significant changes in the proportion of deaths due to infectious and parasitic diseases in the elderly population during the period studied, regardless of sex. However, for both men and women there was a sizeable decrease in the impact of tuberculosis and Chagas' disease, while that of sepsis appeared to increase. According to the results of the ecological analysis, socioeconomic indicators had little power to explain the differences in mortality patterns seen in the different states of the country. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that policies to prevent and control infectious and parasitic diseases among the elderly in Brazil have stagnated. Given this situation and the progressive increase in the elderly population, mortality due to infectious and parasitic diseases is not likely to decrease in this age group, at least in the near future.

Aged↗

Husbandry practices as related to infectious and parasitic diseases of farmed ratites.

Over the past decade, there has been a world-wide increase in the number of farm-raised ratites. The focus of ostrich production remains in South Africa, but other countries are initiating production of this bird in addition to the emu and rhea. Ostriches, emus and rheas are being produced commercially outside their native habitat, resulting in new and unique disease presentations. The authors describe bacterial, viral and parasitic diseases which are emerging in production settings. Biosecurity, together with adequate management and nutrition, will reduce the likelihood of flock exposure and limit mortality in the event of infection. The problem currently facing the industry is that most ratite facilities do not incorporate separate quarantine areas. Newly-introduced birds may contaminate soil and facilities with pathogens such as Mycobacterium spp. and Salmonella spp. Ratites have excellent production potential if producers can profitably multiply and rear healthy stock. The authors discuss the currently-known diseases which may affect the viability of an intensive production facility.

Animal Husbandry↗

[Parasitic diseases in the central nervous system].

Along with the drastic decrease of soil-transmitted intestinal helminthiases, parasitic diseases in general are ignored, or considered as the disease of the past, in Japan. However, due to the Japanese food culture of eating raw materials, food-borne parasitic diseases are still present in Japan. The majority of food-borne parasitic diseases are zoonotic, and caused by ectopic migration of parasite larvae. They accidentally migrate into CNS to cause deleterious conditions. Clinicians should always remind about the possibility of parasitic diseases when they make differential diagnosis for CNS diseases.

Animals↗

Parasitic diseases and urban development.

The distribution and epidemiology of parasitic diseases in both urban and periurban areas of endemic countries have been changing as development progresses. The following different scenarios involving Chagas disease, lymphatic filariasis, leishmaniasis and schistosomiasis are discussed: (1) infected persons entering nonendemic urban areas without vectors; (2) infected persons entering nonendemic urban areas with vectors; (3) infected persons entering endemic urban areas; (4) non-infected persons entering endemic urban areas; (5) urbanization or domestication of natural zoonotic foci; and (6) vectors entering nonendemic urban areas. Cultural and social habits from the rural areas, such as type of house construction and domestic water usage, are adopted by migrants to urban areas and increase the risk of disease transmission which adversely affects employment in urban populations. As the urban health services must deal with the rise in parasitic diseases, appropriate control strategies for the urban setting must be developed and implemented.

Animals↗

Vaccines against human parasitic diseases: an overview.

There are no vaccines currently available to control the major human parasitic diseases, although there is evidence of acquired immunity and resistance to reinfection in most of the parasitic infections. The present manuscript concentrates on the vaccines for parasitic diseases that are in the most advanced stages of development: malaria, leishmaniasis and schistosomiasis. Vaccines for malaria and leishmaniasis have been taken to clinical trials while vaccines for schistosomiasis are being considered for Phase I (assessment of safety and immune responsiveness in volunteers). We have attempted to give a factual account of the present status of knowledge of vaccines against human parasitic diseases, emphasizing both the successes and setbacks. We do not intend to cover the enormous literature in the field but have concentrated on the most promising antigenic preparations. Finally, some new approaches for the development of vaccines are discussed including nucleic acid vaccines and the use of cytokines as adjuvants.

Antigens↗

Current usage of nomenclature for parasitic diseases, with special reference to those involving arthropods.

Terminological confusion has been aggravated by efforts to develop a standardized nomenclature for parasitic diseases (SNOPAD) arising from the proposal by Kassai et al., 1988) for a standardized nomenclature of animal diseases (SNOAPAD). To restabilize international nomenclature of parasitic diseases it is recommended that, whenever appropriate, names should follow the 'International Nomenclature of Diseases' (IND) compiled by the Council for International Organizations for Medical Sciences (CIOMS/WHO, 1987). For diseases not included in IND, familiarity should guide the choice of name: traditional English language names of diseases should be preferred, e.g. 'malaria', 'scabies' or, for parasitic diseases having no traditional name, the taxonomic name of the causative organism should be applied, e.g. 'Brugia timori microfilaraemia'; 'Plasmodium malariae infection'; 'Simulium allergy'--instead of the generic derivatives proposed by SNOPAD, i.e. brugiosis, plasmodiosis and simuliidosis, respectively. For names of new diseases or those rarely mentioned, the suffix -osis would normally take precedence. Generally, the name of choice for any disease in any language should be the vernacular term, with commonest English usage preferred for international communication, and publications should include synonyms in the list of keywords.

Animals↗

[Improving the sanitary and epidemiologic surveillance system is a necessary condition for enhancing the efficiency of preventive measures against parasitic diseases].

The paper presents a pattern of the improved sanitary and epidemiological surveillance system against parasitic diseases in Russia at the present stage. A great deal of species of causative agents of parasitic diseases, a great variety of ways and factors of their transmission show that there is a need for its further optimization by taking into account local, natural, climatic and social conditions of the population's life and activities and paying a particular attention to the system's key point, namely to the evaluation of the risk of infection, which is the basis of planning preventive measures against parasitic diseases.

Environmental Monitoring↗

The National Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention: a new administrative structure for schistosomiasis control.

Since more than 5 decades, the overall responsibility for the national programme on schistosomiasis control in China resides at the government level, i.e. Ministry of Health. Day-to-day activities are carried out by independent provincial parasitic institutes situated in the endemic areas. Along with the general economic development and the steady progress in the medical sciences, successful developments in control and research of the parasitic diseases in the country were achieved. This necessitated a corresponding reorganization of the administrative structures which has taken place at several levels. In January 2002, the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention was reorganized and the Institute of Parasitic Diseases in Shanghai became part of this new organization under the name of the National Institute of Parasitic Diseases to better reflect its new role. By assigning all administrative tasks regarding research and control of parasitic diseases under the umbrella of one administrative central laboratory, the new task force for epidemiological surveys and direction of parasitic control programmes is well suited to respond to the daunting challenges of the future. The new institution has only existed for a few years but has already become a well-functioning force with a broad contact net of national and international experts on research and control of parasitic diseases.

Academies and Institutes↗

[Parasitic diseases in sheep and goats in Germany].

A review is presented on the species spectrum, biology and epidemiology of endo- and ectoparasites of sheep and goats in Germany. Current therapeutic, prophylactic and metaphylactic measures are given and discussed.

Animals↗

The occurrence of infectious and parasitic diseases in poultry slaughtered in the district of Olsztyn, Poland, 1986-91.

During 6 years, 1986-91, in poultry processing plants in the district of Olsztyn, Poland, 37,779,959 carcasses and internal organs of slaughtered fattened poultry were (1,691,188 hens, 23,681,855 chickens, and 12,226,016 turkeys) were examined. As a result of the antemortem and postmortem inspections, 744,499 birds were condemned for human consumption, which was 1.66% of the total number of birds examined. The highest percentage of condemned birds was registered in hens (2.4%) and the lowest in chickens (1.27%). By means of a medical examination, the following diseases were diagnosed most frequently in chickens: Marek's disease in 2,265 birds (0.095%), salmonellosis in 13,463 birds (0.056%), coccidiosis in 9,548 birds (0.04%), and chronic illness of the respiratory system in 377 birds (0.0016%). In hens, salmonellosis was found in 15,951 birds (0.94%), tuberculosis in 301 birds (0.018%), leukemia in 122 birds (0.007%), and aspergillosis in 71 birds (0.0042%). In turkeys, chronic illness of the respiratory system was found in 23,938 birds (0.196%), aspergillosis in 13,243 birds (0.11%), salmonellosis in 3,918 birds (0.032%), and leukemia in 29 birds (0.00024%).

Abattoirs↗