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Providential personalities have been writing history since the beginning of times - personalities that could be found within and across Romania's borders [1]. In medicine, such brilliant figures have healed patients through diligence, dedication, and professionalism, but have also passed significant teachings to the next generations. They have rigorously respected an authentic professor's definition, a figure that teaches and prepares specialists for the future. The great medical personalities, Ion Cantacuzino and Victor Babeș, have been mentored by famous professors, have also become famous professors on their own, and they have educated doctors and professors who have carried on their research and medical teaching legacies. Through study, through diligence, and an impressive personal development, their students have also become proficient figures in medicine [1-2]. They have trained personalities in the medical field that could have reached higher peaks, were it not for the political and social climate of their country. Among those, now we shall bring into discussion professor Matei Balș, a remarkable man and teacher, whose contribution focused the necessity of employing strict and correct means of practice, tying together in an organic way the clinical and the laboratory work, a dogma which he has passed on to his students. He has funded the "School of Infectious Diseases" at Colentina Hospital and has formulated teachings that stand the test of time; his working approach is still appropriate and praised today. The current generation as well as future ones not only have the obligation to recognise the exceptional achievements of our ancestors in history, but to also keep them alive and develop upon them, in the interest of the Romanian people, Romania itself, but also for the public health system at an international level [1]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Romania, cervical cancer is the second most frequent neoplasm among women of 15 to 44 years of age, mainly due to a lack of prevention efforts. The purpose of this study is to assess the current knowledge and attitude towards HPV infection and immunization among medical students. Such information is vital in order to properly assess the current shortcomings of our medical system in the struggle of lowering cancer incidence. A cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was carried out in 2016 and in 2018 on a total of 1,133 participants (median age of 21.9 years, 572 students in 2016 and 562 in 2018). No statistical differences between males and females regarding knowledge of HPV vaccine were found (chi-square 0.046, df = 1, p = 0.83). Moreover, between the 2016 and the 2018 groups, no noticeable changes in HPV awareness and information were observed (2016: chi-square: 0.003, df = 1, p = 0.955; and 2018: chi-square: 0.061, df = 1, p = 0.805). Even though the participants have noted reliable media and medical staff as their main sources of information, our study revealed poor general knowledge, no improvement in perception, and a lack of prophylactic action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mother-to-child transmission of viral blood bome diseases (BBD) may be prevented with efficient measures of prophylaxis. Some of the most frequent viruses involved in mother-to-child transmission are HBV, HIV and HCV. Our main objectives were to assess the mother-to-child transmission of BBD - HBV, HCV and HIV, to evaluate the risk factors associated with these viruses transmission in a hospital from Romania, especially in childbearing women diagnosed at the moment of birth, along with defining the importance of midwives. We conducted a retrospective, descriptive study, from January 2017 to December 2018 at a District Hospital for Obstetric Gynecology in Romania. A total of 7,020 childbearing women were monitored. Only 73 childbearing women presented BBD (61 HBV infections, 7 HCV infections and 5 HIV infections). Mother-to-child transmission rate of BBD was 12.32% (N=9 newborns) and the most frequent BBD transmitted to newborns was HIV infection. There were no cases of HBV mother-to-child transmission. The most important risk factors for transmission of abovementioned viral infections were found to be episiotomy, cervical rupture and early membrane rupture. There is a need for joint effort of all healthcare providers including the midwives in order to improve the control of BBD transmission from pregnant women to their newborns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]