Prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in elderly individuals treated in the Brazilian Public Health System in Goiânia.

Background: Cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF) present a high prevalence and have an impact on the morbimortality of the elderly; however, this question is still unknown by the elderly treated in the Brazilian Public Health System (SUS).

Objective: To investigate the prevalence of CVRF among the elderly treated by SUS in the city of Goiânia, state of Goiás, Brazil.

Methods: Cross-sectional study using a multiple-stage sampling method, carried out through a home-based interview with 418 elderly individuals aged > 60 years treated by SUS in the city of Goiânia, state of Goiás, Brazil.

Tracing the origins and signatures of selection of antifolate resistance in island populations of Plasmodium falciparum.

Background: Resistance of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum to sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) has evolved worldwide. In the archipelago of São Tomé and Principe (STP), West Africa, although SP resistance is highly prevalent the drug is still in use in particular circumstances. To address the evolutionary origins of SP resistance in these islands, we genotyped point mutations at P.

In vitro assessment of artesunate, artemether and amodiaquine susceptibility and molecular analysis of putative resistance-associated mutations of Plasmodium falciparum from São Tomé and Príncipe.

Objective: To evaluate the basal in vitro responses of Plasmodium falciparum isolates collected in The Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe to artemether (ATH), artesunate (ATN) and amodiaquine (AMQ).

Methods: The prevalence of given single nucleotide polymorphisms in the pfmdr1, pfcrt, pftctp and pfATPase6 genes was assessed by PCR-RFLP or DNA sequencing, and gene copy numbers were estimated by real-time PCR.

Results: Mean IC50s to ATH and ATN were relatively low (1.

Raised houses reduce mosquito bites.

BACKGROUND: In many parts of continental Africa house construction does not appear to impede entry of malaria vectors and, given their generally late biting cycle, the great majority of transmission takes place indoors. In contrast, many houses in São Tomé, 140 km off the coast of Gabon, are raised on stilts and built of wooden planks. Building on stilts is a time-honoured, but largely untested, way of avoiding mosquito bites.

Malaria and its possible control on the island of Príncipe.

Background: Malaria can be eradicated from islands. To assess the prospects for eradication of malaria from the island of Príncipe in the Gulf of Guinea, we fitted a mathematical model to age-prevalence curves and thus obtained estimates of the vectorial capacity and of the basic reproductive number (R0) for malaria.

Methods: A cross-sectional malariological survey was carried out, in mid-1999, in six communities, comprising circa 17% of the total 6,000 population of the island.

'A mate or a meal'--pre-gravid behaviour of female Anopheles gambiae from the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe, West Africa.

Background: Malaria prevalence differs between the two islands that comprise the archipelago of São Tomé and Príncipe. This may be due to differences in the biology of local Anopheles gambiae, the only vector on the islands. Survival rate and feeding frequency are two factors influencing vectorial capacity.