A Rural Community in a Brazilian Western Amazonian Region: Some Demographic and Epidemiological Patterns

• Main Authors: LMA Camargo, MM Moura, V Engracia, RC Pagotto, SA Basano, LH Pereira da Silva, EP Camargo, B Beiguelman, H Krieger
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Ministério da Saúde 2002-03-01
• Series: Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz.
• Subjects: demography; epidemiology; malaria; hepatitis; Western Amazonia; Rondônia; Brazil
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0074-02762002000200008
• ISSN: 0074-0276; 1678-8060

Some demographic and epidemiological patterns of the rural population of Monte Negro, locality situated in the State of Rondônia (Brazil), Western Amazonia, are described based on a sample of 924 randomly selected individuals, approximately 10% of the whole population. The main features of this sample are (1) the illiteracy rates in the parental generation were 23% for fathers and 20% for mothers. Among children, this figure dropped to 6%; (2) housing in Monte Negro is characterized by being constructed with wood (92%), and also a floor (75%). Nevertheless, only 32% of these houses had electric energy; (3) the mean ages for the parental generation were 41.9 for males and 36.3 for females. These values for the offspring generation were 12.2 and 10.5, respectively; (4) the sex-ratio of the offspring generation was 1.32;(5) the bioassay of kinship was estimated as .033 for this long range migrant population; (6) the prevalence of some macrophage dependent infectious disease was conspicuously high; (7) the reported number of malarial episodes among males and females was statistically different, suggesting that malaria may be, in part, a "professional" disease; (8) the prevalence of serum-positive reactions against B-hepatitis is distressing. It has a strong age dependence and reaches 74% among adult males. Conversely, signs of active infection (AgHbs) rises to 16% among children.