Recent Food Shortage Is Associated with Leprosy Disease in Bangladesh: A Case-Control Study

Although intensive control programs reduced the prevalence of leprosy worldwide, new cases of this infectious disease are still detected in several of the poorest areas of the world. Therefore the disease is known as a disease of poverty. To be able to control the disease it is important to know which aspects of poverty play a role in transmission and acquiring clinical signs of disease. In this study socio-economic circumstances of recently diagnosed leprosy patients were compared with those of a control population in the poverty stricken northwest area of Bangladesh where leprosy is common. A recent period of food shortage was the only socio-economic factor that was found related to leprosy disease in this study and not poverty as such. Food shortage is seasonal and poverty related in northwest Bangladesh, while malnutrition is known to lower immunity and make people more vulnerable to infectious diseases. Therefore it was concluded that malnutrition as an aspect of poverty played an important role in the development of the clinical signs of leprosy. We therefore recommend that nutritional support for high risk groups should be included in leprosy control programmes to reduce risk of disease in areas where leprosy is common

Personality May Confound Common Measures of Mate-Choice

The measurement of female mating preferences is central to the study of the evolution of male ornaments. Although several different methods have been developed to assess sexual preference in some standardized way, the most commonly used procedure consists of recording female spatial association with different males presented simultaneously. Sexual preference is then inferred from time spent in front of each male. However, the extent to which the measurement of female mate-choice is related to exploration tendencies has not been addressed so far. In the present study we assessed the influence of variation in exploration tendencies, a trait closely associated to global personality, on the measurement of female mating preference in the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) using the widely used four-chamber choice-apparatus. The number of movements performed within both exploration and mate-choice apparatus was consistent within and across the two contexts. In addition, personality explained variation in selectivity, preference strength and consistency. High-exploratory females showed lower selectivity, lower preference scores and displayed more consistent preference scores. Our results suggest that variation in personality may affect the measurement of female mating preference and may contribute to explain existing inconsistencies across studies

The Coming Revolution in Medicine

157 tr. ; 22 cm