ICBAS - Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar
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Author: Begoña Pérez Cabezas

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There is a dog at ICBAS who will help with students' mental health

A joint initiative between the Student Support Office and the veterinarian at ICBAS Luísa Guardão was presented at the reception ceremony for new students.

Starting this academic year, students at the Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar of the University of Porto (ICBAS-UP) will be able to participate in sessions assisted by a certified dog. The novelty is the result of a partnership between the Student Support Office and the veterinarian Luísa Guardão, with the aim of making a difference in the prevention of students' mental health and well-being.

On the other side of the Student Support Office door, ICBAS students can find, this academic year, not only one of the service's psychologists, but also the dog “Lola” – recently certified to carry out animal-assisted interventions by ÂNIMAS, together with the veterinarian Luísa Guardão -, with whom you can contact in previously scheduled sessions.

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Source: Notícias UP; Image: NVSTUDIO

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There are more cruises on the Douro but not all of them treat water

Guardianship guarantees its own residual station on Portuguese hotel ships, but not on foreign ones. Captaincy issued five notices. Waste collected by tanker trucks is dumped into the sewer system.

In the first half of this year alone, there were 11,322 trips on the Douro River, including hotel ships, day cruises or pleasure boats. There are 132 more than registered last year. And, although the Ministry of Economy and the Sea guarantees, to JN, that “hotel ships flying the Portuguese flag all have their own wastewater or sewage treatment system”, the same cannot be said about foreign cruises operating in the Douro. António Costa Silva's office says that they are certified "as local auxiliary vessels", but the "construction process does not pass through Portugal", not ensuring that they have a similar system.

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Source: Jornal de Notícias / Image Credits: Pedro Correia – Arquivo Global Imagens

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Pollution levels of the Ave River above those recommended by the EU

ICBAS researchers warn of the impact of pollution caused by farming in the Ave river basin.

A study of the Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar of the University of Porto (ICBAS-UP), part of the ATLANTIDA Project (financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the NORTE 2020 Program), and recently published in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin, demonstrated that the use of pesticides from agricultural practices still has a significant negative impact on the Ave river.

What was, about 30 years ago, one of the most polluted rivers in the country and in Europe, the result of discharges from the textile industry characteristic of that region, continues today to face problems related to the pollution caused by the agricultural exploitation located in its hydrographic basin.

For Maria João Rocha, responsible for the study, these results are very relevant, in the sense that pollution in the Ave River is associated with the presence of industries, often forgetting that the effluents also come from agricultural areas.

Read the full text here.

Source: Notícias UP / Image credits: Câmara Municipal de Vila do Conde

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Malaria – no solution without One Health

By Begoña Pérez-Cabezas, ICBAS

PORTO - Malaria is a disease caused by the parasite Plasmodiumwhich is transmitted by the bite of infected Anophelesmosquitoes. Although it is preventable and usually treatable, there were an estimated 247 million cases of malaria and 619000 malaria deaths worldwide in 2021. The most affected continent was Africa, with 95% of malaria world cases and 96% of malaria deaths. Children under 5 years of age accounted for about 80% of all malaria deaths in this continent. The disease also has consequences for economy, education, and equity, impairing the development of the affected communities.

Although there is a vaccine against malaria approved and being implemented, its efficacy is modest and short-lived. Moreover, resistance to antimalarial drugs has been confirmed in some of the parasite species. So, vector-control tools are crucial to prevent infection and to reduce disease transmission. To act at the vector level, it is essential to understand the ecology of the Anopheles mosquitoes and the environmental conditions that contribute to the spread of these mosquito species and, consequently, of the disease. Increase population’s literacy on this topic is also essential to enhance prevention.

Core interventions against the mosquito are insecticide-treated nets and indoor residual spraying. However, resistance to insecticides among Anopheles mosquitoes has also been emerging. Other threats of these control measures are limited access, loss of nets due to day-to-day life damages, and changing behaviour of mosquitoes, which appear to be biting early before people go to bed. Warming temperatures related with climate change are also moving mosquitoes to higher elevations and away from the Equator. This expands malaria’s range, which can be devastating for countries unprepared to manage with the disease.

One Health is essential to deal with vector-borne diseases like malaria. In order to address the challenges of malaria prevention, the approach has to be supported by multiple stakeholders and to integrate the communities. Improving surveillance methods and information sharing will be key to ensure early detection (drug and insecticide resistance, mosquito presence, changes on behaviour) and to adapt prevention and treatment policies.

Image credits: Pixabay

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How warmer sea water will affect our health and food

In Santos Populares, there were those who noticed that the fish were not that big. It is a direct effect of rising sea temperatures, but the consequences do not stop there.

Diseases, new animal species and more storms. Sea water is warming from year to year and this will have consequences in many ways, affecting our well-being, but also health and safety.

The increase in water temperature is causing an effect that is still unknown, but that scientists have already begun to identify, lacking to understand the dimension. Adriano Bordalo e Sá, Professor at the 'Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar' (ICBAS), warns that the absence of regular screenings may be hiding a problem in Portuguese waters.

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Source: CNN Portugal

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Increase of marine bacteria on beaches endangers public health

Vila Nova de Gaia, 19/08/2022 - Praias em Vila Nova de Gaia estão interditas a banhos por causa de uma bactéria. Praia de Canide Norte em Vila Nova de Gaia. ( José Carmo / Global Imagens )

The scientist's alert follows a study by ICBAS, subsidized by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), on water quality on beaches in the North region.

The researcher from the University of Porto Adriano Bordalo Sá warned about the danger to public health in beach waters, due to the increase in non-fecal pathogenic bacteria during the summer, and recommends an urgent national diagnosis.

In an interview with the Lusa agency in the context of climate change that is increasing the temperature of sea water in the north of the country, the scientist and professor at the Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar (ICBAS) of the University of Porto, recommended to the Health authorities to perform an “immediate diagnosis at national level”, because the situation found on the northern beaches could be happening along the coast, which is about 900 kilometers long.

Read the full text here.

Source: Diário de Notícias | Image Credits: José Carmo/Global Imagens

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ICBAS wants to make Porto a “pilot city” of the “One City, One Health” concept

The Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar of the University of Porto (ICBAS), which has been working on the One Health concept for four years, wants to make Porto a "pilot city" in the reflection around the relationship between animals, humans and the environment.

“The objective is to use Porto, a city with international visibility, and with an important regional and national weight, as a pilot for the 'One city, One Health' project and think about health with these three components [animals, environment and people] and not individually. Thinking about the animals that are on the streets without forgetting environmental policies, including people, seeing the characteristics of the environment where they live, thinking, for example, that a health support infrastructure can not be created without respect for the environment”, said the director of ICBAS, Henrique Cyrne Carvalho.

In an interview with the Lusa agency – on the One Health subject, a concept and vision that ICBAS leads and which has already taken Cyrne Carvalho to the European Parliament this year, after having been on the Ethics Committee National Council for Life Sciences in the Portuguese Parliament – he said that he has already met with the Porto municipality and that the partnership is “being worked on”.

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ICBAS Center for Human and Animal Health will have riding stables

The Center for Research in Human and Animal Health, a project of the Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar of the University of Porto (ICBAS), that will be located in Maia, will include riding stables to promote community contact with horses.

In an interview with the Lusa agency, the director of ICBAS, Henrique Cyrne Carvalho, highlighted that the project, in addition to the scientific and research aspect, includes as its objective “a very marked connection to the community, using horses for the benefit of mental health and some groups of pathologies.”.

“We know that hippotherapy is of enormous benefit to various disorders of the autism spectrum, among others. On the other hand, by having riding stables, we can promote the interaction and proximity of the community with the horses”, said Henrique Cyrne Carvalho.

Read the full text here.

Source: SAPO24

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Nano for One Health – nanomedicine in zoonoses prophylaxis and treatment

By Sofia Costa Lima, ICBAS

PORTO – Emerging zoonotic diseases are one of the major challenges to the "One Health" concept. Zoonosis embraces multiple infectious diseases transferred from animals to humans. Currently, the treatment and diagnosis of zoonotic infections are difficult due to genetic mutations, target site modifications, and multi-drug resistance. In fact, increasing level of resistance against antimicrobial agents among bacteria species causes a major challenge for Human and Animal health, as well as life in the future.

New management approaches to improve prophylactic measurements, assure effective diagnosis and therapies towards resistant bacteria are urgent. In this context, nanomaterials are transforming medicine with versatile potential capabilities for diagnostic devices and treatments for zoonosis through targeted and controlled delivery of antimicrobial drugs. The nanometer size of the materials, allows easy entrance into the cells of living organisms. Additionally, nanomaterials can have a protective role, preventing the encapsulated drug or antimicrobial agent from degradation because of the shielding properties of these nano-sized material, controlling and targeting its release into the diseased tissues reducing adverse side effects. Applications of nanomaterials as vaccines or drug delivery systems, directing therapeutic agents in combating zoonotic diseases strengthen the successful design of control strategies. Recently, new nanotechnology-based approaches were proposed with active antimicrobial properties, for pathogens separation, or as diagnostic material. The application of nanotechnology can bring new opportunities to tackle zoonotic infections.

Image credits: iStockphotos

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One Health protagonist of 'History' in the media

The path is made by walking, wrote Antonio Machado (1875-1839) in what was the poem that left him for the eternity of letters. It is in this slow path made of persistent steps that the One Health concept is forming a school, which may come to revolutionize the way of looking at Health, the one that guides us, comforts us, makes us believe that it is possible to be better, which gives us quality of life and circumvents the void of pessimism even when the scenario is the darkest and the days seem shortened to death.

Read the full piece here.

Source: Notícias Magazine.

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