Drug education: a review of British Government policy and evidence on effectiveness. (33/3103)

British Government policy on drugs primary prevention is outlined and principal recommendations are identified. The review is organized under the four main providers: police, teachers, peers and parents. Current methods are reviewed within a British policy framework with a focus on British programmes which have been evaluated. Most programmes use a combination of information, resistance or life skills training and normative education. Evaluative research suggests these methods are generally most effective. The police have achieved a community-wide approach, teachers have managed to integrate drug education into the National Curriculum, peer approaches have considered the needs of their target audience and parent approaches have recruited influential educators. However, more evaluative research is required before we can identify which particular programmes are most effective in reducing drug use.  (+info)

Extensive transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from a child. (34/3103)

BACKGROUND AND METHODS: Young children rarely transmit tuberculosis. In July 1998, infectious tuberculosis was identified in a nine-year-old boy in North Dakota who was screened because extrapulmonary tuberculosis had been diagnosed in his female guardian. The child, who had come from the Republic of the Marshall Islands in 1996, had bilateral cavitary tuberculosis. Because he was the only known possible source for his female guardian's tuberculosis, an investigation of the child's contacts was undertaken. We identified family, school, day-care, and other social contacts and notified these people of their exposure. We asked the contacts to complete a questionnaire and performed tuberculin skin tests. RESULTS: Of the 276 contacts of the child whom we tested, 56 (20 percent) had a positive tuberculin skin test (induration of at least 10 mm), including 3 of the child's 4 household members, 16 of his 24 classroom contacts, 10 of 32 school-bus riders, and 9 of 61 day-care contacts. A total of 118 persons received preventive therapy, including 56 young children who were prescribed preventive therapy until skin tests performed at least 12 weeks after exposure were negative. The one additional case identified was in the twin brother of the nine-year-old patient. The twin was not considered infectious on the basis of a sputum smear that was negative on microscopical examination. CONCLUSIONS: This investigation showed that a young child can transmit Mycobacterium tuberculosis to a large number of contacts. Children with tuberculosis, especially cavitary or laryngeal tuberculosis, should be considered potentially infectious, and screening of their contacts for infection with M. tuberculosis or active tuberculosis may be required.  (+info)

Warmth and comfort in the subtropical winter: a study in Brisbane schools. (35/3103)

Winter thermal sensations of secondary and primary school-children in Queensland are related to air temperature. Neutrality is estimated by regression analysis of over 6000 assessments and a lower comfort limit is suggested to include 80% of the children. Cold discomfort is seen as the main problem, and comparison is made to an earlier study in England.  (+info)

A programme for collaborative influenza surveillance. A report of a working group of the Public Health Laboratory Service. (36/3103)

A surveillance programme is described which is intended to assess the effects of influenza virus infections on communities at large by collating influenza virus isolations and consultations for respiratory infections from general practices with new claims for sickness benefit and deaths from all causes. Particular importance is attached to relating virus isolations to symptomatic respiratory disease seen in practices of known age and sex structure.  (+info)

Climate, traffic-related air pollutants, and asthma prevalence in middle-school children in taiwan. (37/3103)

This study compared the prevalence of asthma with climate and air pollutant data to determine the relationship between asthma prevalence and these factors. We conducted a nationwide survey of respiratory illness and symptoms in middle-school students in Taiwan. Lifetime prevalences of physician-diagnosed asthma and of typical symptoms of asthma were compared to air monitoring station data for temperature, relative humidity, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, ozone, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter [less than/equal to] 10 microm (PM(10)). A total of 331,686 nonsmoking children attended schools located within 2 km of 55 stations. Asthma prevalence rates adjusted for age, history of atopic eczema, and parental education were associated with nonsummer (June-August) temperature, winter (January-March) humidity, and traffic-related air pollution, especially carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides, for both girls and boys. Nonsummer temperature, winter humidity, and traffic-related air pollution, especially carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides, were positively associated with the prevalence of asthma in middle-school students in Taiwan.  (+info)

Evidence for transmission of pertussis in schools, Massachusetts, 1996: epidemiologic data supported by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis studies. (38/3103)

In 1996, 18 of 20 pertussis outbreaks reported in Massachusetts occurred in schools. Pertussis surveillance data were reviewed and a retrospective cohort study was conducted in a high school that experienced an outbreak. Bordetella pertussis isolates from 9 school cases and from 58 cases statewide were examined by use of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Statewide incidence rates were highest among children aged <1 year, 10-14 years, and 15-19 years (106, 117, and 104 cases per 100,000, respectively). Among 34 confirmed and 20 probable cases at the school, 61% had cough onset within 8 weeks of school opening. Five different PFGE types were identified among the 58 B. pertussis isolates from throughout the state. All 9 isolates from the affected high school were the same PFGE type. School-aged children may play an important role in pertussis epidemics. Consideration should be given to use of acellular pertussis vaccines among school-aged children.  (+info)

Abstinence promotion and the provision of information about contraception in public school district sexuality education policies. (39/3103)

CONTEXT: For more than two decades, abstinence from sexual intercourse has been promoted by some advocates as the central, if not sole, component of public school sexuality education policies in the United States. Little is known, however, about the extent to which policies actually focus on abstinence and about the relationship, at the local district level, between policies on teaching abstinence and policies on providing information about contraception. METHODS: A nationally representative sample of 825 public school district superintendents or their representatives completed a mailed questionnaire on sexuality education policies. Descriptive and multivariate analyses were conducted to identify districts that had sexuality education policies, their policy regarding abstinence education and the factors that influenced it. RESULTS: Among the 69% of public school districts that have a district-wide policy to teach sexuality education, 14% have a comprehensive policy that treats abstinence as one option for adolescents in a broader sexuality education program; 51% teach abstinence as the preferred option for adolescents, but also permit discussion about contraception as an effective means of protecting against unintended pregnancy and disease (an abstinence-plus policy); and 35% (or 23% of all U.S. school districts) teach abstinence as the only option outside of marriage, with discussion of contraception either prohibited entirely or permitted only to emphasize its shortcomings (an abstinence-only policy). Districts in the South were almost five times as likely as those in the Northeast to have an abstinence-only policy. Among districts whose current policy replaced an earlier one, twice as many adopted a more abstinence-focused policy as moved in the opposite direction. Overall, though, there was no net increase among such districts in the number with an abstinence-only policy; instead, the largest change was toward abstinence-plus policies. CONCLUSIONS: While a growing number of U.S. public school districts have made abstinence education a part of their curriculum, two-thirds of districts allow at least some positive discussion of contraception to occur. Nevertheless, one school district in three forbids dissemination of any positive information about contraception, regardless of whether their students are sexually active or at risk of pregnancy or disease.  (+info)

Mass psychogenic illness attributed to toxic exposure at a high school. (40/3103)

BACKGROUND AND METHODS: Mass psychogenic illness may be difficult to differentiate from illness caused by bioterrorism, rapidly spreading infection, or toxic substances. We investigated symptoms attributed to exposure to toxic gas at a high school in Tennessee. In November 1998, a teacher noticed a 'gasoline-like' smell in her classroom, and soon thereafter she had a headache, nausea, shortness of breath, and dizziness. The school was evacuated, and 80 students and 19 staff members went to the emergency room at the local hospital; 38 persons were hospitalized overnight. Five days later, after the school had reopened, another 71 persons went to the emergency room. An extensive investigation was performed by several government agencies. RESULTS: We were unable to find a medical or environmental explanation for the reported illnesses. The persons who reported symptoms on the first day came from 36 classrooms scattered throughout the school. The most frequent symptoms (in this group and the group of people who reported symptoms five days later) were headache, dizziness, nausea, and drowsiness. Blood and urine specimens showed no evidence of carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, paraquat, or mercury. There was no evidence of toxic compounds in the environment. A questionnaire administered a month later showed that the reported symptoms were significantly associated with female sex, seeing another ill person, knowing that a classmate was ill, and reporting an unusual odor at the school. CONCLUSIONS: The illness attributed to toxic exposure had features of mass psychogenic illness - notably, widespread subjective symptoms thought to be associated with environmental exposure to a toxic substance in the absence of objective evidence of an environmental cause. Alleviation of the anxiety surrounding an episode of mass psychogenic illness requires prompt recognition and a detailed investigation.  (+info)