The objective of this study is to define the etiological and demographical characteristics of the patients applying to the emergency department in Faculty of Medicine, Çukurova University because of poisoning. This retrospective study was carried out by examining the records of 491 people who applied to the main emergency department in Faculty of Medicine, Cukurova University, with the complaint of poisoning between January 1, 2004 and December 31, 2004. It was determined that the reason why 491 of 20 817 persons (2.4%) applied during this term was because of poisoning: 159 (32.4%) of such patients were male and 332 of them (67.6%) were female. It was found that the average age of men was 27.1 ± 10.5 years and that of women was 24.4 ± 9.5 years ( P = 0.005); 427 of poisoning cases (87.0%) happened intentionally as suicide attempts and 64 of them (13.0%) were accidental. The rate of suicide-purposed poisoning was higher in women and the rate of unintentional poisoning was higher in men ( P ± 0.001). The drugs were accountable for 71.1% of all poisoning cases and the pesticides were accountable for 18.9% of such cases. Poisonings increase during summers. The mortality rate in poisonings was found as 0.8%. The drugs and pesticides in Ckurova region constitute 90.0% of all poisoning cases. The mortality rate in poisoning will be decreased by training the physicians employed in the emergency department about poisoning by drugs and pesticides. Human & Experimental Toxicology ( 2007) 26, 401—406

Cancer is a major public health problem due to the jeavy disease burden, fatality and tendency for increased incidence. Of all cancer types, cervical cancer is reported to be the fourth most common cancer in women, and the seventh overall, with an estimated 528,000 new cases worldwide in 2012. It features a long preclinical phase with slowly progressing precancerous lesions such as CIN 2 and 3 and adenocarcinoma in situ. Therefore, screening programs such as with Pap smear tests may play an important role in cervical cancer prevention. The purpose of this study was to present results of a Pap smear screening survey for cervical cancer targeting women living in an urban area in the province of Mersin, located in the Mediterranean region of Turkey. This communitybased descriptive study included women living at Akdeniz county of Mersin province. A total of 1,032 screened women between 30 and 65 ages within the routine screening programme constituted the study population. The mean age of the participants was 43.8±8.6 (min. 30, max. 65) years. The percentage of the participants who had previously undergone smears was 40.6%. Epithelial cell changes were found in 26 (2.5%) participants, with ASC-US in 18 (1.7%), ASC-H in 2 (0.2%), LSIL in 5 (0.5%) and HSIL in 1 (0.1%). The most common clinical presentation together with epithelial changes was abnormal vaginal discharge. Taking into account the presence of women who had never undergone Pap test; it should be offered at primary level of health care in the form of a community-based service to achieve reduced morbidity and mortality rates.

Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in females in the World with around 500,000 new cases occurring annually, but the first in the developing countries with a high mortality if not diagnosed early. Papanicolau (Pap) smear is a cheap, easy-to-apply and widely accepted test which has been long used to detect cervical cancer at very early stages. However, despite being available for nearly 60 years, the test can hardly be considered to have become successfully applied in many communities. We aimed in this study to present the results of a screening survey for cervical cancer which targeted a women population aged between 35 and 40 living in a semi-rural area in the province of Hatay, located in the eastern Mediterranean region of Turkey, with specific aims of increasing early diagnosis, education and raising population awareness about cancers. This community-based descriptive study covered 512 women between 35 and 40 years of age living at Armutlu with a mean age of 37.6±1.7. Gynecologic examinations revealed cervical erosion in 8 (1.6%), vaginitis in 193 (37.7%) and normal findings in 311 (60.7%); pathological evaluation reports of the smears were negative in 290 (56.6%), inflammation in 218 (42.6%) and ASC-US in 4 (0.8%), according to the 2001 Bethesda classification. It can be concluded that Pap smear test -proven to be a very valuable test at the clinical level-should also be widely used at the community level to detect cervical cancer at very early stages to reduce both the mortality and morbidity among healthy people. The need for continuous community-based cervical cancer screening programs is strongly suggested.

The aim of this study is to gather information about the knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of women regarding breast and cervical cancer, to increase the knowledge level of the relevant age group and to begin including the relevant age group in screening programs. This cross-sectional study is composed of 6910 women aged 30–69 years in Malatya, Turkey. The study aimed to reach 1782 women with a survey, and all of them were reached. The questionnaire form was completed with face-to-face interview. For statistical analysis, data were evaluated as number and percentage distributions. The average age of the women was 45.6±11.4. Nearly half of the women (46.4%) did not know that scans for early detection of breast and cervical cancers were free. Only 22.2% of women knew that breast cancer could be diagnosed early by mammography. 72.7% had never received a mammogram. One third (31.6%) of women did not know it was possible to recognize cervical cancer early, and two thirds (64.5%) of women had not received a Pap smear test. It has been determined that Turkish women do not have adequate knowledge about cancer diagnosis, early cancer diagnosis, and screening.

Background/aim: This study aims to serve as a unique consolidated source in Turkey's vaccination history and as an example for other countries by objectively revealing the change in mortality and morbidity rates in Turkey following the beginning of vaccination without asserting any claim on the benefits or risks of vaccines. This unbiased research will also help health professionals identify the challenges more easily when they face with the people who hesitate to vaccinate their children. Materials and methods:Descriptive research design is adopted in this study. The coverages of vaccinations, mortality, and morbidity rates were identified through a retrospective analysis of the data provided from the Ministry of Health of Turkey. The data provided by the Turkish Statistical Institute were used for the identification of the population by the year. Mortality and morbidity rates were calculated based on these data Results: Morbidity rates, mortality rates, and vaccine coverages are all presented in years. Successful interventions have been observed in the eradication of polio, the elimination of maternal neonatal tetanus, and also in combating with other diseases. A decline in pertussis mortality from 0.59 to 0.06 along with a decline in diphtheria morbidity under to 0.0001 were recognized; additionally the last death due to poliomyelitis was observed in 1998. Only 4 deaths occurred in the measles epidemic in 2013. With the initiation of vaccination, both the morbidity of the rubella with the ratio of 3.12/100,000 and the mortality of pumps with the ratio of 25/100,000 fell to zero. Also, no death due to neonatal tetanus has been recorded since 2014. Conclusion:The present study demonstrates that many possible diseases and deaths have been prevented through vaccination studies.In this regard, this study demonstrating the importance of vaccination presents that all individuals in the society have a responsibility in this scope when the communicable diseases and wars are taken into consideration. The main responsibility is to ensure that they and their children are vaccinated against communicable diseases that are risky for society's health.