Urbanizaçäo da leishmaniose visceral em Belo Horizonte / Urbanization of visceral leishmaniose in Belo Horizonte, Brazil

O Brasil vivencia na atualidade uma situaçäo na qual velhas edemias, que se pensava esquecidas, ressurgem com grande impacto e muitas vezes com perfis de morbi-mortalidades diferentes daqueles já conhecidos. Este é o caso da leishmaniose visceral, uma doença caracteristicamente rural e associada a condiçöes precárias de vida, que encontra no espaço urbano ambiente favorável para se estabelecer e desenvolver. O município de Belo Horizonte convive, desde 1993, com uma epidemia de calazar humano e canino. Foram feitas a reconstruçäo histórica da enfermidade e a caracterizaçäo de alguns aspectos demográficos dos casos humanos. Aparentemente a doença foi introduzida em Belo Horizonte a partir de focos existentes em municípios vizinhos, como Sabará. Os Distritos Sanitários Leste e Nordeste foram os mais acometidos. A evoluçäo espacial da epidemia mostrou que os casos caninos precederam os humanos, confirmando a importância do cäo como reservatório do calazar em áreas urbanas. O risco de adoecer foi maior em crianças menores de 15 anos. A situaçäo de Belo Horizonte ilustra muito bem o processo de urbanizaçäo de enfermidades tradicionalmente rurais, vivenciado por várias cidades brasileiras

Observing the behavior of senior dental students in relation to infection control practices.

To achieve adequate infection control in the dental practice, dental students should be fully aware and prepared to adopt necessary procedures. But most studies of students' infection control behaviors rely on self-reported data. This study verified, through direct observation, how senior dental students performed basic infection control procedures and assessed how close to reality the reported behavior is to the observed behavior. Eight students were observed in three clinics: pediatric dentistry, minor oral surgery, and primary care promotion. The students were not aware of who was being observed or why. Later all twenty students comprising that clinical subgroup answered a questionnaire. Seventy-two patient-student contacts were observed. Students considered basic infection control procedures as relevant. The reported intention of adoption of these procedures after graduation dropped in relation to their reported relevance. Although the observed behavior in the three clinics was considered satisfactory, when compared to the reported behavior, it was found that the intention was more positive than the behavior itself. Even though the students were conscious about the importance of cross-infection control in the dental practice, the reported intention of future use and mainly the observed behavior should be improved.

[Prescription of drugs of systemic use by dentists]. / Prescrição de medicamentos de uso sistêmico por cirurgiões-dentistas, clínicos gerais.

OBJECTIVE: The study of the prescription pattern of antibacterial and analgesic/antiinflammatory systemic medication by dentists. METHODS: Observational study based in questionnaires answered by a representative, randomly selected sample of 163 general dentists from the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte, Southeastern Brazil. Some of the topics verified were: the most frequently prescribed drugs in the fortnight prior to the study, the use of generic names of drugs in the prescriptions, attendance at refresher courses on pharmacology, self-assessment of degree of knowledge on pharmacology, the importance given to this subject in the dentist's professional career, and the filling out of the clinical chart and the registration of the drugs prescribed on it. RESULTS: It was observed that the drugs were usually prescribed by their commercial name. There were a trend to prescribe more antiinflamatory than analgesics drugs. A small, but worrying, 13% of dentists didnot fill out the clinical chart for all the patients and 43% of the sample didnot register the drugs prescribed on it. The courses on pharmacology seemed to produce no significant alteration in self valuation as to the degree of knowledge in pharmacology and the use of the generic names of drugs.