Perinatal action of estrogens or aromatizable steroids at the central nervous system level is responsible for brain sexual differentiation. Through early contact with the central nervous system, the estrogenic compound bisphenol A (BPA) could alter the processes affecting sociosexual behavior. To test this hypothesis, we studied agonistic and sexual behavior of adult female and male rats whose mothers were administered BPA (40 microg/kg/day) during pregnancy or lactation. An intruder test revealed in males but not in females an increase in defensive behavior due to BPA. We studied the effect of BPA on sexual behavior by testing sexual orientation and sexual activity. Male sexual orientation toward a stimulus female was not affected by BPA, whereas the sexual activity test revealed a slight impairment of sexual performance due to BPA in terms of latency and frequency of intromissions. In females, BPA produced a small increase in sexual motivation and receptive behavior. In conclusion, BPA administration, both during pregnancy and during lactation, does not masculinize female behavior or potentiate masculinization processes of males. On the contrary, we observed a potentiation of female behavior in females and a depotentiation of male behavior in males.

BackgroundChagas disease is an anthropozoonosis caused by Trypanosoma cruzi. Two drugs are currently used for the etiological treatment of the disease: Nifurtimox (Lampit) and Benznidazole. This study presents a quasi-experimental trial (non-control group) of sixty-two patients who were treated for Chagas disease with Nifurtimox (Lampit), and were then followed for 30 months post-treatment. The safety of Nifurtimox (Lampit) for Chagas disease in this group of children primarily between 4 and 19 years old was also evaluated.Materials and methodsThe 62 patients included in the study were selected when resulted seropositive for two out of three fundamentally different serological tests. All children were treated during two months according to protocols established by WHO. Monitoring was performed every twenty days to evaluate treatment safety. In 43 patients, two different serological tests: ELISA and IFAT; and two parasitological tests: blood culture, and real time PCR, (qPCR) were performed to assess therapeutic response, defined as post-treatment serological negativization.Principal findingsAll patients completed the treatment successfully, and six patients abandoned the post-treatment follow-up. Adverse effects occurred in 74% of patients, but only 4.8% of cases required temporary suspension to achieve 100% adherence to the 60-day treatment, and all symptoms reverted after treatment completion. Both parasite load (measured through qPCR) and antibodies (ELISA absorbance) evidenced a significant median reduction 6 months after treatment from 6.2 to 0.2 parasite equivalents/mL, and from 0.6 to 0.2 absorbance units respectively (p<0.001). Serological negativization by ELISA was evident since 6 months post-treatment, whereas by IFAT only after 18 months. Serological negativization by the two tests (ELISA and IFAT) was 41.9% (95%CI: 26.5–57.3) after 30 months post-treatment. qPCR was positive in 88.3% of patients pre-treatment and only in 12.1% of patients after 30 months. Survival analysis indicated that only 26.3% (95%CI: 15.5–44.8) persisted with negative qPCR during the whole follow-up period.ConclusionsNifurtimox was very well tolerated and successfully reduced parasite load and antibody titers. Re-infection, lysed parasites or a lack of anti-parasitic activity could explain these persistently positive qPCR cases.

Chronic diseases related to unbalanced and unhealthy eating habits have definitely become one of the major issues of modern age, not only in western countries but also in those ones where rapid economic growth has increased global prosperity levels. In order to avoid medical systems to collapse under excessive costs, International and Public Organizations strongly support health policies that aim to make people shift towards wholesome dietary patterns, also encouraging the use of food-labels to choose healthier products. To evaluate the consumers’ knowledge and perception about food-labels a brief questionnaire was developed and shared on Facebook between January-March 2016. Most of the participants were young adults with higher education. They declared to do their shopping at least once a week, reading the food-labels quite often. Despite owing limited knowledge in basic nutrition principles and food-labelling they were generally able to recognize healthier products looking over their nutritional fact tables. Anyway, on average, what they care the most about the products they purchase is the global quality level rather than the nutritional values. In order to induce the whole population to use food label as an effective self-protection tool, more efforts should be done to improve their knowledge on nutrition fundamentals and basics about food labelling, because that would make them able to take safer and more conscious choices as regards their own health.Significance for public healthFood label represents the identity card of food products: it reports composition, ingredients and their relative amounts, it informs about quality, origin, processing and preservation. This information gives the consumer the opportunity to consciously choose what to purchase. The label could concretely help us in protecting and improving our health, if our choices are supported by some basic knowledge of wholesome nutrition, based on a balanced and varied diet. In a wider perspective, this may translate into a reduction of obesity and chronic disease incidence – closely related to negative eating habits – and significantly impact on public health in terms of costs for individuals and medical systems. The study proposed highlights how, despite the reported nutritional information is often clear and comprehensive, consumers do not necessarily take the healthiest choice, but decisionmaking process is also influenced by the ability to decode the label and its graphical representation, by socio-economic status and self-perception of psychophysical well-being. Food security and related issues won’t be debated in the following paper, but it is worth reminding that the label is also a key element to guarantee consumers safety. Providing the product’s lot number, it is essential for tracing the product itself and to quickly recall it from the market in case of food alert.

Despite the impressive progress gains for maternal and child health during the Millennium Development Goals era, over 5.6 million women and babies died in 2015 due to complications during pregnancy, birth and in the first month of life. In order to achieve the new mortality targets set out in the Sustainable Development Goals, there needs to be intentional efforts to maintain and accelerate efforts to end preventable maternal and newborn deaths and stillbirths. This paper outlines what progress is required to meet these new 2030 targets based on patters of progress in the recent past; where the burden is the greatest; when to focus attention along the continuum of care; and what causes of death require concerted efforts.Priority actions include intentional and intensified political attention and investment in maternalnewborn health with particular focus on improving quality and experience of care around the time of birth with implementation at scale of integrated maternal-newborn health interventions across the continuum of care with commensurate investment targeted at the most vulnerable populations. Looking forward, improved data for decision making and accountability will required.The health and survival of babies and their mothers are inextricably linked, and calls for coordinated efforts and innovation before and during pregnancy, in childbirth, and postnatally, in order to end preventable maternal, neonatal deaths and stillbirths.3

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