Background: Malaria is a huge public health problem in Africa that is responsible for more than one million deaths annually. In line with the Roll Back Malaria initiative and the Abuja Declaration, Eritrea and other African countries have intensified their fight against malaria. This study examines the impact of Eritrea's Roll Back Malaria Programme: 2000-2004 and the effects and possible interactions between the public health interventions in use.

The prevalence of cardiovascular diseases has been shown to be on the increase in Africa based on hospital-based information and limited national surveys. A recent report on analysis of data from Health Information Management Systems (HIMS) highlighted an increasing burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in Eritrea, with the incidence of hypertension doubling in a space of 6 years. HMIS data are only a proxy of national prevalence rates, necessitating the conduct of national surveys. The WHO STEPwise approach to surveillance of NCDs was used for the national NCD risk factor survey in 2004. This report focuses on blood pressure (BP) and obesity (body mass index (BMI) > 30 kg/m2) as NCD risk factors in Eritrea. A total of 2352 people in age groups 15 to 64 years participated in the survey. The prevalence of hypertension defined as BP > 140/90 mmHg was 15.9% in the general population, with 16.4% in urban and 14.5% in rural areas, 17% of whom were males while 15% were females. BMI was positively associated with systolic (SBP), diastolic and mean arterial pressure. Although the prevalence of obesity (3.3%) was higher in females, the effect of BMI on BP was higher in males than in females (regression coefficient 0.64 and 0.38, respectively, P < or = 0.05), especially in those >45 years. BMI did not have a significant effect on BP in lean people (BMI < 19) and in those with high BMI, but was positively correlated to SBP in those with normal BMI (P < or = 0.02). BMI and age appear to play a synergistic role in creating a strong association with BP.

The Wellcome Tropical Institute has assisted countries in the tropics to establish viable systems of continuing medical education, particularly for young doctors practising in rural areas. As part of this strategy the Institute has developed material for use in distance learning. The first attempt to apply the problem-based learning approach to written material for use by an individual learner in the absence of a tutor led to a trial in Ghana, Kenya and Pakistan to compare a conventionally designed module with a problem-based learning module on the same topic for their respective acceptability, effectiveness and efficiency. The design, implementation and results of these three comparative trials are presented.

Cobra snakes, including Naja mossambica and Naja nigricincta nigricincta, are one of the major groups of snakes responsible for snakebites in southern Africa, producing significant cytotoxicity and tissue damage. The venom of N. mossambica has been briefly characterised, but that of N. n. nigricincta is not reported. The current study identifies the venom proteins of N. mossambica and N. n. nigricincta. This is achieved using sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS)-polyacrylamide gel eletrophroresis (PAGE), followed by high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). Most of the proteins were less than 17 kDa in both snakes. N. mossambica was found to have 75 proteins in total (from 16 protein families), whereas N.n. nigricincta had 73 (from 16 protein families). Of these identified proteins, 57 were common in both snakes. The proteins identified belonged to various families, including the three-finger toxins (3FTx), Cysteine-rich secretory proteins (CRiSP), Phospholipase A2 (PLA2) and Venom metalloproteinase M12B (SVMP). The current study contributes to the profile knowledge of snake venom compositions, which is of fundamental value in understanding the proteins that play a major role in envenomation.

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