[Is asthma still a life-threatening disease?]. / L'asthme est-il une maladie toujours potentiellement mortelle ?

After a substantial augmentation in the mid-1980s, mortality from asthma stabilized in France as in the other industrialized countries, probably because of ever more appropriate health care utilization and treatment. In 2004, there were 1099 death in metropolitan France with a principal cause listed as asthma (last published data), for a crude rate of 1.8 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. Despite the fact that fewer people are dying of asthma, several studies show an excess of all-cause mortality among people with asthma compared with people without asthma. The prevalence of severe asthma does not appear to have diminished, and clinical data show that severe asthma remains potentially fatal, because of resistant phenotypes, among other reasons. Other investigations are necessary to determine the trends in the prevalence of severe asthma and to understand the nonrespiratory mortality of asthma patients. Vigilance and surveillance of severe asthma must be maintained.

Treponemal infection rates, risk factors and pregnancy outcome in a rural area of Senegal.

A rural population of east Senegal has been under demographic surveillance for more than 30 years and a high rate of infertility has been reported. The aim of the study is to describe HIV and treponemal infection epidemiology and association with outcome of pregnancy in a population of rural Senegal. A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 952 randomly-selected adults of a rural community of Senegal. No participant was found to be infected with HIV, 11% had evidence of past syphilis and 5% of active syphilis. Active syphilis was associated among men with age, long-term mobility and having partners in an urban area in the last 12 months and among women with being divorced or widowed. No association was found between past or active syphilis and abortion or stillbirth but women aged 40 and more with past or active syphilis were significantly more likely to have had no history of gestation than women with no evidence of syphilis infection. In conclusion our results call for more research to understand the epidemiology of treponemal infection and to elucidate types of Treponema pallidum involved.

Impact of tobacco control policies on exhaled carbon monoxide in non-smokers.

BACKGROUND: Passive smoking is a serious health risk in non-smokers. The strength of tobacco control policies of the EU countries vary. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between secondhand smoke exposure, as assessed by exhaled carbon monoxide (eCO), and the strength of national tobacco control policies, in non-smokers in the EU. METHODS: Data were provided from the EU campaign 'HELP: for a life without tobacco' during national events settled in the 27 EU countries in 2006-2007. Individual information on age, gender, and eCO was obtained from 58,919 self-reported non-smokers. The strength of national tobacco control policies was scored by the Tobacco Control Scale (TCS). The relationship between eCO and TCS score was investigated using ecological and multilevel approaches. RESULTS: Both analyses reported a significant linear decrease in eCO per unit increase in TCS score, with a smaller estimation resulting from the multilevel analysis (beta=-0.03 ppm, 95% CI -0.04 to -0.02 vs -0.05, -0.02 to -0.08). CONCLUSION: The present study confirms, in a large European non-smoker population, the relevance of strong antismoking policies in reducing exposure to passive smoking. The findings give further reason to encourage European countries to strengthen their tobacco control policies to protect non-smokers from secondhand smoke.