INTRODUCTION Since adoption of the measles case-based surveillance system in Zimbabwe in 1998, data has been routinely collected at all levels of the health delivery system and sent to national level with little or no documented evidence of use to identify risky populations, monitor impact of interventions and measure progress towards achieving measles elimination. We analysed this data to dete...

The presence of a xenobiotic in the environment always represents a risk for living organisms. However, to talk about impregnation there is a need to detect toxicity in the organism, and the concept of intoxication is related to specific organ alterations and clinical symptoms. Moreover, the relationship between the toxic levels within the organism and the toxic response is rather complex and h...

Algal communities possess many attributes as biological indicators of spatial and temporal environmental changes. Algal parameters, especially the community structural and functional variables that have been used in biological monitoring programs, are highlighted in this document. Biological indicators like algae have only recently been included in water quality assessments in some areas of Mal...

Ionizing radiation that consists of α, β and γ rays can directly damage DNA and other molecules and as such result in somatic or germline mutations. The consequences of ionizing radiation for living beings cannot be measured with a Geiger counter because it will depend on external dose, internal dose, and the extent of DNA repair. In addition it will depend on the environmental conditions under...

The report presents results on finding appropriate biomarkers applicable in molecular epidemiological surveys of occupationally exposed individuals and/or population to study low dose effects. Blood samples were collected from the “strict regimen” area personnel (exposed) and the administrative staff (controls) of NPP-Kozlodui. Two levels of evaluation were used: molecular spontaneous and induc...

Despite extensive growth in recent years, the field of "quality-of-life" appraisal still evokes debate about basic perception of the concept and is accompanied by a plethora of indexes for measurement. One prime reason for the problems is that the measurements have been transferred from two separate sources - medical health status indexes and social-science population indexes - neither of which...

Considerable attention has been devoted to environmental assessment and monitoring, primarily by physical and biological scientists, and more recently by social scientists. However, population growth and global change have resulted in an imperative to assess the resiliency of the environment to adapt to large scale changes and to continue to produce goods and services for future generations (su...