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This study aimed to describe the proportion of HIV testing among an African immigrant population in Portugal and identify the socio-demographic factors that may be associated. A questionnaire was applied to 522 African immigrants (53% men) who attend the National Immigrant Support Centre, in Lisbon. Odds ratios (OR) with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated through logistic regression to analyse the relationships between HIV testing and other variables. Around 52% of participants reported having been HIV tested, mostly women. After adjusting for potential confounders, age and educational level were significantly associated with HIV testing for both women and men. Searching for HIV information at NHS was also significantly associated with HIV testing, but only among men. This study points out interesting challenges for HIV prevention programs among African immigrants and may help in the development of tailored projects focused on the promotion of HIV testing among these populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monk seals in Cape Blanc (Western Sahara coast) suffered a mass mortality during May-July 1997 which was attributed to a morbillivirus. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis on tissues of seals killed during the outbreak and on related fauna showed peaks with retention times coincident with those of some saxitoxin derivatives but their identity was not proved. Here we present results of further HPLC analyses that unambiguously prove the identity of these toxins by mass spectrometry (MS), supporting the hypothesis that this mortality of monk seals was caused by biotoxins rather than by a morbillivirus.