Is cystic echinoccocosis re-emerging in western Spain?

Cystic echinococcosis (CE) remains an important health problem in many areas of the world, including the Mediterranean region. We performed a retrospective study of cases reported from 1998 to 2012 in order to review and update the epidemiology of this disease in a highly endemic area situated in western Spain. A total of 471 patients were diagnosed with hydatid disease. Of these cases, 55·8% were male, with an average age of 62·3 ± 19·5 years. More importantly, 1·5% of patients were children, and 20·5% were aged <45 years. An active therapeutic approach was implemented for 92·6% of the CE patients with primary diagnoses; however, a 'watch and wait' strategy was used in 59·3% of all secondary CE diagnoses. The incidence rate of hydatid disease was significantly higher compared to the incidence described in the Notifiable Disease System in this area. Furthermore, a significant decrease in hydatid incidence during the years included in the study was observed (ß = -0·4357, P < 0·001). CE incidence has diminished in recent years, although active transmission remains in paediatric cases. Additionally, CE incidence remains high in our region despite public health plans for its control. The documented incidence of CE disease clearly underestimates the real numbers.

Imported transmissible diseases in minors coming to Spain from low-income areas.

We prospectively studied the prevalence of imported transmissible diseases in 373 immigrant children and adolescents coming from Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and Latin America to Salamanca, Spain. The most frequent transmissible diseases in this group were latent tuberculosis (12.7%), chronic hepatitis B virus infection (4.2%), hepatitis C virus infection (2.3%), syphilis (1.5%) and human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 or 2 infections (1.4%). A total of 24.2% of patients had serologic profiles suggesting past hepatitis B virus infection. Anti-human immunodeficiency virus antibodies were not detected in any subject. Largely asymptomatic immigrant children show a high prevalence of communicable diseases. Thus, infectious disease screenings are highly advisable in immigrant children coming from low-income countries.

Preparation and characterisation of a (226)Ra spiked slag as reference material for radioactive control of steelworks.

One of the issues of the European Research Project MetroMetal is to develop reference materials in order to provide SI-traceable radioactivity monitoring in foundries. For this purpose, a protocol for preparing a set of identical standard slag samples, containing known activity concentrations of (226)Ra, has been developed. This paper describes the preparation of the raw material, the characterisation in terms of its mineralogical, chemical and radiological features, the spiking procedure and the homogeneity testing of the spiked samples.

Sample quality index to preselect suitable carbonate samples for alpha spectrometry U/Th dating.

Accurate dating of samples by alpha spectrometry presupposes that the dated system behaved as closed and that no allochthonous (232)Th was provided to the system. Therefore the selection of appropriate samples is a fundamental task that will determine the reliability and accuracy or not of the results. In this paper, by means of a thorough characterisation, those petrological and chemical variables that allow the preselection of the most suitable samples to be dated have been identified and used to calculate the sample quality index.

Uranium isotopic data in uraninite spent fuel from the Bangombe natural nuclear reactor (Gabon) and its surroundings

In the framework of the "Oklo-Natural Analogue Phase II" Project, uraninite from the Bangombe natural reactor and samples from its host rock were analyzed to determine their uranium isotopic composition by thermal ionisation mass spectrometry, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and alpha spectrometry. There were several objectives for this work: (i) to validate the 235U/238U isotopic ratios obtained by these techniques; (ii) to test the use of the 235U/238U ratio of uraninite as a tracer of migration/retention processes of uranium from the source term to the far field; (iii) to evaluate the most recent migration/retention processes of uranium in the system by U-series disequilibrium.

Uranium isotopic distribution in the mineral phases of granitic fracture fillings by a sequential extraction procedure.

In order to study the recent rock-water interaction processes in the E1 Berrocal site, a sequential leaching method has been applied to granitic fracture fillings to obtain the U isotopic distribution in the mineral phases of these samples. Based on the mineralogical composition of these materials, six dissolution steps have been chosen to extract U as exchangeable cation, from carbonates, amorphous Fe-oxyhydroxides, labile resistates and highly insoluble resistates. In this way, the processes involved in the rock-water interaction phenomena, mainly dissolution, precipitation, coprecipitation and adsorption can be distinguished and even approximately dated.