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The aim of this study was to evaluate the medical and nursing care provided to children in the last 24 hours of life in two Brazilian paediatric intensive care units and analyse the nurses' participation in the decision-making process for life support limitation (LSL). The study was based on an analysis of the patients' medical charts, looking at the medical and nursing care provided in the last 24 hours of life during a 6-month period in the two units, and on semi-structured interviews with 20 nurses to evaluate their participation in LSL decisions. The children were classified into two groups: those who were to receive full cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and a non-CPR group. A total of 34 deaths occurred during the study period. Of these, 17 (50%) were children that had been in the non-CPR group; there were only 10 recorded LSL plans in their medical charts. In the interviews, only 30% of the nurses mentioned active participation in LSL decisions. In conclusion, the paediatric intensive care nurses in these two Brazilian units did not participate much in LSL decisions, and the care offered in the last hours of life to children with terminal and irreversible illness was not primarily directed toward comfort and alleviating suffering.

Multiparity among poor women is associated to vulnerability as a generating or strengthening factor. This is a qualitative and exploratory research that aims at analyzing experiences of contraception among poor multiparae women, considering the influence of gender on their autonomy in choosing the number of children, the moment of getting pregnant, and the contraception strategies. It also aims at analyzing the mechanisms of resistance used by these women in the search for such autonomy. The data were gathered through focus groups. The content analysis suggests that the high number of children these women give birth to is explained by a reduced autonomy in their use of contraception, arising from poverty and gender inequalities. These women face these difficulties using resistance strategies that result in male power disruptions. This research has brought new elements for understanding the multiparity phenomenon in the context of poverty, and it also contributes towards a critical analysis of actions focused on promoting family planning.

This article reports the HPV status and cervical cytological abnormalities in patients attended at public and private gynecological services from Rio de Janeiro State. It also comments the performance of each HPV DNA tests used. A set of 454 women from private health clinics was tested by routine Capture Hybrid II HPV DNA assay. Among these, 58.4% presented HPV and nearly 90% of them were infected by high risk HPV types. However, this group presented few premalignant cervical lesions and no invasive cervical cancer was registered. We also studied 220 women from low income class attended at public health system. They were HPV tested by polymerase chain reaction using My09/11 primers followed by HPV typing with E6 specific primers. The overall HPV prevalence was 77.3%. They also showed a high percentage of high squamous intraepithelial lesion-HSIL (26.3%), and invasive cervical carcinoma (16.3%). HPV infection was found in 93.1% and 94.4% of them, respectively. The mean ages in both groups were 31.5 and 38 years, respectively. In series 1, HPV prevalence declined with age, data consistent with viral transient infection. In series 2, HPV prevalence did not decline, independent of age interval, supporting not only the idea of viral persistence into this group, but also regional epidemiological variations in the same geographic area. Significant cytological differences were seen between both groups. Normal and benign cases were the most prevalent cytological findings in series 1 while pre-malignant lesions were the most common diagnosis in the series 2. HPV prevalence in normal cases were statistically higher than those from series 1 (p<0.001), indicating a higher exposure to HPV infection. Women from both samples were referred for previous abnormal cytology. However, socio-demographic evidence shows that women from series 1 have access to treatment more easily and faster than women from series 2 before the development of pre-malignant lesions. These data provides baseline support for the role of social inequalities linked to high risk HPV infection leading to cervical cancer. Broadly screening programs and the development of safe and effective vaccines against HPV would diminish the toll of this disease that affect mainly poor women.