Cervical cancer is a serious public health problem in women in developing countries because of absence or ineffectiveness of screening programs. Several biases to access medical care and inequity of public health system in a continental country like Brazil limit the implementation of adequate programs to appropriately prevent the cervical cancer. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the results of applying the mobile unit (MU) for cervical cancer screening.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To determine the prevalence of trachoma in Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira (SGC), the only urban community of the upper Rio Negro Basin of the Amazon state in Brazil, near the Colombian border, and to investigate the risk factors associated with the active forms of the disease.
Methods: A total of 1702 people (440 children up to 9 years and 1069 adults aged 15 years and above) were examined. The sample was selected from a probabilistic household sampling procedure based on census data and a previous study of trachoma prevalence in Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira.
Hantaviruses are the causative agents of severe human diseases such as Cardiopulmonary Syndrome (CPS), described for the first time in 1993. Approximately 200 cases of this emergent disease were reported in Brazil until August 2002, with a 40% fatality rate. In May 2001, a hantavirus serologic survey was carried out among 15-70-year-old inhabitants of Jardinopolis County, State of São Paulo, Brazil.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The purpose of this study was to determine the possibility of providing a cervical screening facility to a poor population.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the period from December 1994 to December 1997, with 1384 women from the poor districts of Barretos, São Paulo and three other neighbouring cities. Performed by a nurse, the programme included door-to-door interviews and cervical screening.