Reasons and circumstances for the late notification of Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) cases in health facilities in Luanda.

Introduction: As the polio eradication effort enters the end game stage, surveillance for Acute Flaccid Paralysis in children becomes a pivotal tool. Thus given the gaps in AFP surveillance as identified in the cases of late notification, this study was designed to explore the reasons and circumstances responsible for late notification of AFP and collection of inadequate stools (more than 14 days of onset of paralysis until collection of the 2nd stool specimen) of AFP cases in health facilities equipped to manage AFP cases.

Methods: Eleven AFP cases with inadequate stools were reported from January 2 to July 8, 2012 - Epidemiological Weeks 1-27.

Modulation of the ESIPT emission of benzothiazole type dye incorporated in silica-based hybrid materials.

A set of silica-based hybrid material samples was obtained, with different molar fractions of tetraethylorthosilicate and dimethyldimethoxysilane, as inorganic and organic sol-gel precursors, respectively. The hybrid material was used as a matrix to disperse the 2-(4'-amino-2'-hydroxyphenyl)benzothiazole, a fluorophore with large Stokes shift caused by an excited state intramolecular proton transfer phenomena (ESIPT). UV-vis and steady-state fluorescence in the solid state were applied in order to characterize the photophysical behavior of the dye.