Prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections among school children in capital areas of the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, West Africa.

Background: Although the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe (DRSTP) has undertaken school children-based deworming programs against intestinal parasitic infections (IPIs) using a single dose of mebendazole annually since 2005, it remains unclear as to the outcome to date. The present study intends to investigate the recent IPIs status among school children living in capital areas of the DRSTP. Methods: A total of 252 school children (121 boys and 131 girls) of grades 4 and 5 from 4 primary schools located in the capital areas participated in the present study and their fresh fecal specimens were examined for the presence of any parasites using the merthiolate- iodine-formaldehyde concentration method as conducted. Results: The overall prevalence of IPIs was 64.7% (163/ 252). No significant gender difference in prevalence between boys (67.8%) and girls (61.8%) was found (p = 0.3). The majority of school children were infected with a single species of parasite (55.8%). Altogether, 12 different intestinal parasite species were identified in DRSTP school children, of which 9 species were pathogenic and the remaining 3 were non-pathogenic. Conclusion: Improving the detection method, sanitation facilities and personal hygiene as well as utilizing combined drugs are all important measures to greatly reduce IPIs in DRSTP school children.

Incorporation of the Health Care System in the West

A reflection is made, from an interpretative perspective, on the historical evolution of health care in the West. It starts from the moment that this became a way to intervene the sick and an instrument for healing diseases, focusing on original documents and written sources which account for results of historical research, which range from XV century until today. To do this, it tries to understand the health care as an ideographic body of knowledge consisting of five pieces of a puzzle composed by: the state policy of hospitals accumulation implemented in Spain, the accumulation of medical practices in what is currently Germany, the hospital wards in England, the nosological rationality in France, and the US sanitizing machine; all these movements as producers of closely linked health care developments, that are nothing more than collective actions regulated by social norms around health.