Humanization and nursing assistance to normal childbirth

Bibliographical study that sought to identify the scientific production about humanization and nursing assistance to normal childbirth. The sources were scientific articles from SCIELO-Brasil's database, from 2000 to 2007. We obtained 13 articles as result from the search, which were grouped in the following categories: childbirth medicalization, humanization of assistance to childbirth, companion during childbirth and performance of the obstetric nurse. The analysis pointed out that the current paradigm is centralized on childbirth intervention, despite of humanization movements defending the natural and physiological childbirth made by the nurse. We concluded that qualified and humanized assistance to childbirth and birth privileges women's respect, dignity and autonomy, regarding women's active role in the birth process.     

The vulnerability of nursing workers to tuberculosis in a teaching hospital

This study aimed to identify aspects that potentially increase the vulnerability of nursing workers to tuberculosis, through the verification of personal life, work and disease knowledge indexes. The sample is composed of 81 nursing workers involved with assistance in the night and day shifts at USP Teaching Hospital, who answered a questionnaire about life and work habits. The sample aggregated the indexes that increase vulnerability to tuberculosis: long professional experience in hospitals and work load longer than 12 hours. Data show that nursing auxiliaries and workers from the night shift in general have a higher number of vulnerability indexes.     

Natural infection of Lutzomyia longipalpis by Leishmania sp. in Teresina, Piauí State, Brazil

In Brazil, control of the vector Lutzomyia longipalpis is one of the main strategies used to limit the expansion of American visceral leishmaniasis. However, studies on the ecology of this sand fly are rare, especially regarding its natural infection with species of Leishmania. A study of the natural infection of Lu. longipalpis by Leishmania sp. was carried out in the Bela Vista neighborhood in the city of Teresina, Piauí State, Brazil, an important area of American visceral leishmaniasis transmission. From February 2004 to January 2005, sand flies were captured with CDC light traps. Approximately 10 female sand flies in each capture were dissected and examined for the presence of evolutionary forms of Leishmania sp. Two sand fly species were identified: 1,832 were Lu. longipalpis and six Lu. whitmani. Twenty female sand flies (1.1%), all Lu. longipalpis, were infected with procyclic and nectomonad forms of Leishmania sp., found mostly in the hindgut. Higher proportions of infected sand flies were found four months after the rainy season, suggesting that environmental factors may predict not only vector abundance (as already known) but also their level of infection.     

Helicobacter pylori-induced inflammation and epigenetic changes during gastric carcinogenesis

The sequence of events associated with the development of gastric cancer has been described as “the gastric precancerous cascade”. This cascade is a dynamic process that includes lesions, such as atrophic gastritis, intestinal metaplasia and dysplasia. According to this model, Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection targets the normal gastric mucosa causing non-atrophic gastritis, an initiating lesion that can be cured by clearing H. pylori with antibiotics or that may then linger in the case of chronic infection and progress to atrophic gastritis. The presence of virulence factors in the infecting H. pylori drives the carcinogenesis process. Independent epidemiological and animal studies have confirmed the sequential progression of these precancerous lesions. Particularly long-term follow-up studies estimated a risk of 0.1% for atrophic gastritis/intestinal metaplasia and 6% in case of dysplasia for the long-term development of gastric cancer. With this in mind, a better understanding of the genetic and epigenetic changes associated with progression of the cascade is critical in determining the risk of gastric cancer associated with H. pylori infection. In this review, we will summarize some of the most relevant mechanisms and focus predominantly but not exclusively on the discussion of gene promoter methylation and miRNAs in this context.