Search

The Erice 50 Charter titled "Strategies for Diseases Prevention and Health Promotion in Urban Areas" was unanimously approved at the conclusion of the 50th Residential Course "Urban Health. Instruments for promoting health and for assessing hygienic and sanitary conditions in urban areas", held from 29th March to 2nd April 2017 in Erice, at the "Ettore Majorana" Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture and promoted by the International School of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine "G. D'Alessandro" and the Study Group "Building Hygiene" of the Italian Society of Hygiene, Preventive Medicine and Public Health (SItI). At the conclusion of the intense learning experience during the Course, with more than 20 lectures, workshops and long-lasting discussions between Professors and Students, the participants identified the major points connecting urban features and Public Health, claiming the pivotal role of urban planning strategies for the management of Diseases Prevention and Health Promotion activities. The Erice 50 Charter is configured as a Decalogue for Healthy Cities and as a Think Tank for designing effective strategic actions and best practices to develop urban regeneration interventions and improve the urban quality of contemporary cities. The Decalogue is structured into the following key strategic objectives: 1. Promoting urban planning interventions that address citizens towards healthy behaviours; 2. Improving living conditions in the urban context; 3. Building an accessible and inclusive city, with a special focus on the frail population; 4. Encouraging the foundation of resilient urban areas; 5. Supporting the development of new economies and employment through urban renewal interventions; 6. Tackling social inequalities; 7. Improving stakeholders' awareness of the factors affecting Public Health in the cities; 8. Ensuring a participated urban governance; 9. Introducing qualitative and quantitative performance tools, capable of measuring the city's attitude to promote healthy lifestyles and to monitor the population's health status; 10. Encouraging sharing of knowledge and accessibility to informations. Finally, all the participants underlined that a multidisciplinary team, composed of Physicians specialized in Hygiene, Preventive Medicine, Public Health and Technicians as Architects, Urban planners and Engineers, is needed to deepen the research topic of Urban Health.

Adherence to vaccination campaigns can be negatively influenced by Web presence of unreliable information. Aim of study is qualitative and quantitative evaluation of Italian WebPages contents about vaccinations to address prevention strategies in countries that, like Italy, wouldn't like vaccination to be mandatory any longer In August 2011 two researchers conducted a Systematic Review in Italian WebPages about vaccination risks. First 100 results of 9 common search engines have been combined; pro and against pages were compared (CHI2, p0,05). 144 WebPages were analysed: 67% of them, often on top positions, was against vaccinations and 24% of them was written by Medical Doctors. All institutional pages (12%) were pro vaccinations but they resulted in less important positions. Against WebPages were different from pro ones in terms of use of emotional images, personal negative experiences, advertising purposes (books or alternative medicine products). Main criticism was: inefficacy, low safety profile and stakeholder's interests. This study would like to represent a useful tool for parents and Medical Doctors, especially because many of them are progressively more sceptical about vaccination practises. The great number of anti-vaccination movements on Italian Web should improve public health strategies in terms of "Evidence-Based prevention".

Growth and mortality rates of juvenile anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus) were estimated from monthly samples collected in the coastal waters off Ortona (central Adriatic Sea). Otolith microstructure analysis was conducted on specimens ranging from 10 to 60 mm TL, including the transition from larval to juvenile stages (i.e. at metamorphosis). Fish were aged by growth increment counts on sagittal otoliths, presuming they were laid down with a daily periodicity. Age estimates ranged from 16 to 96 days, with a good consistency between readings. The hatch date distribution, back-calculated from the date of capture, was spread over a long period (April–February), with three main cohorts hatched in May, August and November. The instantaneous growth rate, calculated for the whole fish sample, was 0.68 mm/day. Nevertheless, the growth rate estimated for each of the main cohorts showed a seasonal trend, being higher in May and decreasing in August and November. The allometric relationship between otolith and fish size changed markedly during the transition from larval to juvenile stages, with a slight decrease of otolith growth rate after metamorphosis. The instantaneous total mortality rates of anchovy, calculated for each of the main cohorts, was lower in May and progressively increased in August and November cohorts, showing an opposite seasonal trend respect to the growth rate.

Programma nazionale per la raccolta dei dati alieutici - Campionamento biologico delle catture della pesca professionale di demersali e piccoli pelagici in alto e medio Adriatico

Anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus, L.) and sardine (Sardina pilchardus, Walb.) are between the most important commercial species of the Adriatic Sea. The present assessments are based on time series of data from 1975 to 2007. Catch and fishing effort data have been collected since 1975. Biological data have been collected as well: length frequency and age-length data were combined to obtain annual catch-at-age series, which represent the basic input of VPA. For anchovy, the annual natural mortality rates M = 0.6 were employed for VPA calculations ; according to a precautionary approach, more emphasis was given to the results obtained with M = 0.6. For sardine, M = 0.5 was selected.The Laurec-Shepherd tuning of VPA (Darby and Flatman, 1994) was performed using abundance index series derived from echo-survey carried out from the midline to the western side of Adriatic. The average stock biomass of anchovy estimated using M = 0.6 was around 120000 tonnes in the period 1976-2007 in the recent period 2005-2007. The corresponding average total catches were equal to 27890 (whole period) and 42614 (recent period) tonnes, respectively. The most recent values of the exploitation rate of anchovy stock, obtained using M = 0.6 and unweighted F0-3 (with the “ initial” age distribution in the tuning data), were lower than the threshold 0.4. The stock biomass of anchovy dropped at a very low level in 1987. After this collapse, recovery took place, but fluctuations still occurred, in particular in recent years. It should be remembered that strong changes over time are commonly observed in the abundance of small pelagics, in particular anchovies (Jacobson et al., 2001). The recent exploitation rate, 0.28 was under the Patterson’ s threshold, but on the other hand, an increase was observed in both western and eastern side catches of most recent years: the mentioned average for the period 2005-2007, 42614 tonnes, was quite over the average for the previous years from 1995 to 2004, 27353 tonnes. The stock can be considered as fully exploited. The average stock biomass estimated for sardine was around 440000 tonnes in the period 1975-2007, whereas it was around 90000 tonnes in the recent period 2005-2007. The corresponding average total catches were equal to 44439 and 17489 tonnes, respectively. The most recent values of the exploitation rate of sardine stock, obtained using unweighted F0-5, were higher than the Patterson’ s threshold 0.4. Moreover, a strong decline of stock biomass occurred after the peak in the first half of 1980s ; this decline was continuous till the end of 1990s: then, biomass was quite stable around values slightly lower than 100000 tonnes, which corresponded to the lowest abundance of the time series. The stock can be considered as overexploited.

Age and growth of the brown meagre Sciaena umbra (Sciaenidae) collected (n = 532) in the north-western Adriatic Sea was studied by means of transverse otolith sections. The maximum age estimated was 19 and 16 years for males and females, respectively. The length at age estimated for each sex indicated that females attain a larger size and grow slightly faster than males. Both marginal increment analysis and edge analysis confirmed that annuli are formed once a year, with opaque zones laid down in summer (June-July). Age readings were very precise, with a percentage agreement of 98% between readers and low values of the index of average percent error (0.9%) and coefficient of variation (1.3%). Von Bertalanffy growth function was fitted to age-length data, and growth parameters were estimated for males (L-infinity = 44.9 cm; k = 0.27, t(0) = -2.17 years) and females (L-infinity = 47.2 cm; k = 0.28, t(0) = -1.82 years). In both sexes of brown meagre, growth rate was high until they attain 2 - 3 years of age, i.e. at sexual maturity. Most of catches were obtained in late summer-early autumn. On the basis of present data, the sampled population of brown meagre mostly consisted of small fish younger than three years of age (about 90%). In addition, landings of this species in recent years largely decreased. As reported elsewhere in north-western Mediterranean, brown meagre stock in the Adriatic Sea showed clear signs of depletion, thus specific management measures for this species are urgently required.