[Knowledge and perception about tuberculosis in Habana Vieja municipality]. / Conocimiento y percepción sobre tuberculosis en el municipio Habana Vieja.

INTRODUCTION: the studies on population's knowledge and perceptions of infectious diseases contribute to develop more effective communication processes. OBJECTIVE: to evaluate the knowledge and the perception of the residents in Habana Vieja municipality about tuberculosis, and to identify the ways for obtaining information about aspects of this disease. METHODS: a cross-sectional study was carried out. A questionnaire was applied on a sample of 86 persons from five health areas of the municipality. A descriptive analysis was made. Odds ratios were calculated to determine association between ways for obtaining information and knowledge on the existence of the disease, symptoms and transmission forms. RESULTS: the respondents know about tuberculosis as a disease, its symptoms, and its presence in Cuba, but the percentages corresponding to the truly significant symptoms are low, including incorrect identifications of towel, comb and mosquitoes as transmission ways of the disease. Television, radio and friends were the most mentioned sources of information. CONCLUSIONS: the population from Habana Vieja municipality knows about the existence of TB. However, specific knowledge about symptoms of the disease and ways of transmissions are insufficient. Changing this situation requires the strengthening of the role of the mass media role and the development of local communication strategies suited to local characteristics.

[Impact of an educational intervention carried out in anti-vector campaign workers]. / Impacto de una intervención educativa en trabajadores de la campaña antivectorial.

INTRODUCTION: Aedes aegypti is a common vector in Cuba, which damages human health. Santiago de Cuba is one of the provinces with high number of mosquito foci in a sustained way. Therefore, it is very important, from the social viewpoint, to carry out educational interventions with anti-vector campaign workers in Mella municipality in this province. OBJECTIVE: to evaluate the impact of an educational intervention on dengue, Aedes aegypti and monitoring actions with anti-vector program workers from Mella municipality in Santiago de Cuba. METHODS: a quasi-experimental research was conducted before and after the educational intervention from November to December, 2010. Lectures and workshops were given in each of the three health areas of the municipality. The sample was made up of 64 workers. The addressed topics were dengue, Aedes aegypti and actions to control them. An Excel database was created. Wilconxon's sign tests were applied to check changes in knowledge. SPSS statistical processor was used (11.5 version). RESULTS: before the educational interveption, the knowledge on dengue was broader than those on the rest of the addressed topics. After the intervention, except for the responses about the disease, the rest of the topics increased their initial assessment values. The topic Aedes aegypti had the highest number of satisfactory answers (100 %), followed by actions to control the vector (90 %). CONCLUSIONS: the educational strategy was effective, since it achieved high impact on the increase of knowledge of the anti-vector campaign workers in Mella municipality, Santiago de Cuba province.

[Classification of dengue hemorrhagic fever using decision trees in the early phase of the disease]. / Clasificación de dengue hemorrágico utilizando árboles de decisión en la fase temprana de la enfermedad.

INTRODUCTION: dengue is a viral disease with endemic behavior. At the beginning of the illness it is not possible to know which patients will have an unfavorable evolution and develop a severe form of dengue. However, some warning symptoms and signs may be present. OBJECTIVE: to apply decision tree techniques to the exploration of signs of severity in the early phase of the illness. METHODS: the study sample was made up of 230 patients admitted with dengue to "Pedro Kouri" Institute of Tropical Medicine in 2001. The variables considered for the classification were the signs, symptoms and laboratory exams on the third day of evolution of the illness. The algorithm of classification and regression trees using the Gini's index was applied. Different loss matrices to improve the sensitivity were considered. RESULTS: the algorithm CART, corresponding to the best loss, had a sensitivity of 98,68% and global error of 0,36. Without considering loss, it obtained its sensitivity reached 74% with an error of 0,25. In both cases, the most important variables were platelets and hemoglobin. CONCLUSIONS: the study submitted rules of decision with high sensitivity and negative predictive value of utility in the clinical practice. The laboratory variables resulted more important from the informational viewpoint than the clinical ones to discriminate clinical forms of dengue.