8th International Symposium on Schistosomiasis

Abstract

For the second time, the city of Recife, located in the Northeast of Brazil-a very rich area in potential and natural beauties, but paradoxally poor because of its social inequalities-scientists came from all over the world to take part on the 8th International Symposium on Schistosomiasis. It is also at this moment, that celebrations which started last year to commemorate 100 years of the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz-Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, and 50 years of its Technical Scientific Unity in Recife, the Aggeu Magalhães Research Center, are officially closed. This meeting is being held at an extremely difficult moment in mankind's history. Some months ago we left behind, as Prof. Cristovam Buarque said, an insane century, "in which the world, while searching for technical efficiency, killed justice, and by having concentrated itself on science, killed ethics. A century in which man, by using his intelligence, was able to manipulate nature within the limitations of his scientific curiosity, but was not able to use his same intelligence to transform the world into a better and more beautiful one, for the benefit of mankind". The poor countries inherited from the XXth Century the frustrations of their humanitarian dreams, the ones he had wished to incorporate to marginalized population citizenship, for it has been impossible to rescue civil rights and build peace based on justice and solidarity among people. The progressive breakdown of emergent nations' competitive power, the fruit of an indiscriminate globalization, has been leading to tragic results, in which the poor countries, in order to supply the chronic deficits in their commercial balances and promote their internal development, get into an international debt, which, in turn, has been deepening the ditch of worldly inequality and, therefore, fomenting social crises. Ideological, religious, political, social and economic contrasts, accumulated throughout centuries, have been feeding, all over the world, the development of terroristic actions, the fruit of fanaticism, hatred and radicalism of disparaging and revolting consciences. The episodes lived through by American people on that tragic 11 of September 2001, in which thousands of innocent lives were cowardly destroyed, without any doubt they represented, as British Prime Minister Tony Blair asserted, an aggression to civilized world conscience. But, at the same time, what happened there and its present unfolding, represent an uneven reflection on past actions and have been scattering seeds of expectations and hopes as to the need of a new international economic order and the arrival of a new age for all. It is within this disturbing worldly scenery, with reflections also on Brazil, that the Fundação Oswaldo Cruz promotes, for the eighth time, through the Aggeu Magalhães Research Center, another of its biennial International Seminars on Schistosomiasis, which started in 1987, in order to discuss more recent positions and suggest strategies which lead to the effective control, or to eradication of schistosomiasis, ...

Conventional Therapy and Promising Plant-Derived Compounds Against Trypanosomatid Parasites

“…However, Nif is no longer commercially available. Instead of producing oxidative damage, the Bz mechanism of action might involve covalent modifications of parasite proteins, lipids, and DNA by nitro reduction intermediates (Coura and de Castro, 2002). The likelihood of curing Chagas disease with Nif and Bz varies according to the phase of the disease, the period of treatment, the dosage, and the age of the patient.…”

“…Usually, satisfactory results are achieved when the patients are treated in the acute phase, in recent chronic infection, in congenital infection, and after laboratory accidents. The major limitation of these compounds is the low efficacy in the treatment of patients in the chronic phase of the disease (Coura and de Castro, 2002). …”

“…However, the most serious reaction to Bz is the depression of bone marrow that leads to thrombocytopenic purpura and agranulocytosis. Due to these characteristic side effects, Nif and Bz should not be used by elderly or pregnant patients or by patients presenting any severe disease associated with Chagas disease, such as cardiac, respiratory, renal, or hepatic insufficiency, systemic infection, and neoplasia (Coura and de Castro, 2002). …”