Mexico established national health weeks (NHWs) in the early 1980s to promote childhood vaccinations. Because of the cumulative worldwide peer-reviewed scientific evidence, the recommendations of the World Health Organization and other international organisations, the political will of the Mexican government and the infrastructure provided by the NHWs, deworming was added to the NHWs in 1993. In addition to the Ministry of Health, several other government organisations participated in administering the deworming component. Tens of millions of school-age and preschool children between the ages of 2 years and 14 years now receive deworming (a single 400 mg dose of albendazole) approximately every 8 months. Between 1993 and 1998 evaluations were carried out in over 90,000 children to determine the effect of NHWs on the prevalence of geohelminth infections. In 1993, the overall prevalence of Ascaris was 20% and that of Trichuris was 15%. Prevalences decreased significantly over time (p <0.001). Treatment efficacy for Ascaris ranged from 91.6% to 85.3%, and for Trichuris, from 97.9% to 42.6%. In 1998, after conducting 12 NHWs with deworming, the respective prevalences were Ascaris 8% and Trichuris 11%. The experience of Mexico in integrating albendazole into its NHWs shows how deworming can be delivered to large numbers of at-risk children using an existing infrastructure. The NHW approach may be generalisable in other countries with successful national vaccination campaigns. The challenge remaining is to sustain the deworming programme until other longer-term behavioural, environmental and socioeconomic changes can be implemented.
Covariance analysis from wavelet data in electroencephalographic records (EEG) was, for the first time, applied in this study to unravel information contained in the standard EEG, which was previously not taken into consideration due to the mathematical models used. The methodology discussed here could be applied to any neurological condition, including the important early stages of neurodegenerative diseases. In this study, we analyzed EEG from control (CL) participants and participants with diagnosed Parkinson’s disease (PD), who were age-matched women in an eyes-closed resting state, to test the model. PD is predicted to rise over the next decades as the population ages. Furthermore, women are more likely to undergo PD-related complications and worse disability than men. Two groups based on age were considered: under and over 60 years (PD patients <60 and >60; CL <60 and >60). Continuous Wavelet Transform and Cross Wavelet Transform were applied to determine patterns of global wavelet curves, main frequencies, and power analyses. Our results indicate that both CL age groups and PD patients <60 share a main a brainwave and PD patients >60 showed a main δ brainwave. Interestingly, power anomalies analyses show a decreasing anteroposterior gradient in CL, whereas it is increasing in PD patients, which was not previously observed. The brainwave power in PD patients <60 was higher in θ, α and β waves and in >60 group, the δ, θ and β brainwaves were predominant. This methodology offers a tool to reveal abnormal electrical brain activity unseen by a regular EEG analysis. The advent of new models that process EEG, such as the model proposed in this study, promotes renewed interest in electrophysiology of the brain to study the early stages of PD and improve understanding of the origin and progress of the disease.
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