[Mapping of road traffic accidents with pedestrians in the territory of a Local Health Unit of Rome through integration of administrative and health data]. / Mappatura dell'incidentalità stradale pedonale nel territorio di una ASL Romana tramite integrazione di dati ammini- strativi e sanitari.

The study analyzes the distribution of traffic accidents with injuries that involved pedestrians and occurred in the territory of the Local Health Unit (LHU) Rome B, to identify areas at higher risk and to implement preventive measures. The road traffic injuries (RTI) reports issued by the Municipal police (2003) were examined. Data were linked with those collected by the Regional Emergency Information System (EIS) and processed using the programs ArcGIS, Access and Excel in order to obtain descriptive maps. During the period under review 423 pedestrians were involved in 392 accidents (11.2% of total accidents); 34% suffered serious injuries and 4% died. Of these, 73% were the elderly (> or = 65 years). The hours between 18:00 and 20:00 are the most critical, with an accident rate 3.7 times higher than the average, 6.4-fold in young (< 16 years) people and 4.6-fold in the elderly. Accidents happen, especially on straight roads (66%) or at intersections (22%); failure to comply with traffic lights causes 5% of the events. Municipality V concentrates the highest percentage of accidents (30%). In this municipality, Tiburtina road, in the part closest to the center of the city, is the road at highest risk with a rate of about 7.6 accidents/km (average of municipalities: 0.23/km and value for the entire LHU: 0.19/km). The neighborhoods closer to the center of the city show a higher risk for pedestrians: 1 event per km takes place in the Tuscolano Neighborhood, 0.7/km in Prenestino-Centocelle and 0.5/km in Pietralata-Collatino, all neighborhoods close to roads with high flow and high risk. The survey highlighted some black points of roads on which it will be appropriate to act with specific preventive measures.

Mapping sleeping sickness in Western Africa in a context of demographic transition and climate change.

Human population growth, climate change and economic development are causing major environmental modifications in Western Africa, which will have important repercussions on the epidemiology of sleeping sickness. A new initiative, the Atlas of human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), aims at assembling and geo-referencing all epidemiological data derived from both active screening activities and passive surveillance. A geographic database enables to generate up-to-date disease maps at a range of scales and of unprecedented spatial accuracy. We present preliminary results for seven West African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Mali and Togo) and briefly discuss the relevance of the Atlas for future monitoring, control and research activities.

Giardia and Cryptosporidium in canine faecal samples contaminating an urban area.

The aim of the present paper was to continue the study on the presence of parasitic elements in the canine faeces contaminating the urban environment of Naples (southern Italy), focussing on the protozoa Giardia and Cryptosporidium. The total number of sub-areas studied was 143, and the total number of canine faecal samples collected and examined was 415. Each faecal sample was tested for the presence of copro-antigens of Giardia and Cryptosporidium using two commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Giardia antigens were found in 19.6% (28/143) of the sub-areas and in 7.7% (32/415) of the canine faeces collected. Cryptosporidium antigens were found in 4.2% (6/143) of the sub-areas and in 1.7% (7/415) of the canine faeces collected. Co-infection was not found in any sample. The results of the logistic regression models did not show any association between the positivity to Giardia or Cryptosporidium and the independent demographic variables (human population density, male and female population density) taken into consideration. In conclusion, the findings of the present study revealed the presence of Giardia and Cryptosporidium in canine faecal samples from the urban environment of Naples; however, the zoonotic potential of these findings was not assessed due to the lack of information on species/genotypes detected.

Birth weight of Italian infants of 30 weeks' gestation or less.

Mean birth weights and percentile charts are given for 161 singleton infants born between 24 and 30 weeks' gestation at the 2nd School of Medicine of Naples. This chart is the first for a Mediterranean population. Our data are similar to those reported from a United Kingdom population and from Japan, suggesting that ethnic differences in birth weight at this gestational age are unimportant.

Mortality in the first week of life and mode of delivery.

11 923 singletons with birthweight greater than 775 g born consecutively at the 2nd School of Medicine of Naples during a four-year period (November 1975 to October 1979) were the subjects of the study. Mortality in the first week of life was 10.9, 9.7, 6.7 and 10.7 per 1 000 respectively in the four years. The total variability of the crude death rates was reduced by 21.4% after standardization for birthweight distribution alone and by 28.6% when both birthweight and mode of delivery were taken into account. Therefore only a small fraction of the variations in mortality can be ascribed to changes in the distribution of modes of delivery during the study period. Most of these variations are probably related to the quality of perinatal care, which seems to have improved only for babies under 1 526 g. Birthweight specific mortality in relation to mode of delivery is further discussed.