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Drug safety profile is an important theme throughout the world. Recently, it has gained importance in the field of veterinary medicines. In Brazil, Ministry of Agriculture Law SDA 152/2008 submitted to the public consultation the draft of a National Program of Veterinary Pharmacovigilance. Taking into consideration the health risk to exposed human beings, the objectives of this paper are: characterization of veterinary pharmacovigilance and its usefulness for the Public Health, the description of established veterinary pharmacovigilance programs from the United States of America, the European Union and the United Kingdom, and the analysis of the Brazilian Program of veterinary pharmacovigilance draft. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an earlier paper (Dressler, 2001), I suggested that medical anthropology as a research enterprise could not ignore either meaning or structure in human social life in the production of health. Rather, drawing on the early work of Bourdieu, I argued that we need to take into account both how the world is configured by the collective meanings we impose upon it, as well as the social structural (and physical) constraints on our behaviour that exist outside those meanings. Human health can be understood, in part, as the intersection of meaning and structure. Here, my aim is to extend this perspective in three ways. Firstly, I present an expanded theoretical framework within which collectivei meaning and social structure can be conceptualised. A useful theoretical framework must take into account paradoxical features of culture, including the seeming contradiction that it is a property both of social aggregates and of individuals, and that, ultimately, social structural constraints external to individuals depend on shared meaning. Secondly, I review recent research employing this perspective conducted in Brazil, the southern United States and Puerto Rico. These studies have all employed a 'structural-constructivist' theoretical orientation, using especially the concept of 'cultural consonance', or the degree to which individuals incorporate shared meaning into their own beliefs and behaviour. Where individual efforts to attain a higher cultural consonance are frustrated by structural constraints, poor health results. Thirdly, I consider some of the policy implications of this perspective. While much work in traditional public health focuses on a highly individualised notion of meaning (as in 'health beliefs'), it seems unlikely that the health of populations can be altered substantially without taking into account the structures that constrain individual action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether, how, and when children's HIV/AIDS diagnosis needs to be disclosed to them has received growing attention. This paper describes and conceptualizes how communication about HIV/AIDS influences disease knowledge and psychosocial development in a group of children and adolescents living with perinatally acquired HIV infection in an AIDS institution in São Paulo, Brazil. Data consist of the lived experience of 36 children ages 1 to 15 and was gathered through ethnographic research methodologies: participant observation and semistructured informal interviews. Results show that AIDS diagnosis is not disclosed to children, who experience a growing confusion about the interconnected meanings of sickness, medications, living at a house/institution, and having AIDS. Children younger than 6 learn to accept medication taking and to silence illness-related questions. Seven to 9-year olds perceive that the word AIDS and/or being sick are considered negative attributes, but are confused about how these relate to their lives. Preadolescents' growing awareness of the relationship between their lives and negative social values associated with AIDS produces shame and anger. Adolescents exhibit a poor understanding of the implications of HIV/AIDS for their lives and cynicism toward AIDS care, their future, and information about risks to their health. In conclusion, lack of communication about HIV/AIDS creates a context of confusion and mistrust, is detrimental to psychosocial development and coping, compromises disease knowledge, and increases vulnerability to risk behavior. Providing developmentally appropriate information about HIV/AIDS that matches children's illness experiences at all ages would eliminate the need for disclosure and reduce children's emotional distress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]