Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz ISSN: 1678-8060 EISSN: 1678-8060 Vol. 105, Num. 4, 2010, pp. 357

Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Vol. 105, No. 4, 2010, pp. 357

Foreword

Octavio Fernandes, Otávio Sarmento Pieri, Omar dos Santos Carvalho, Mitermayer Galvão dos Reis

Code Number: oc10062

The present special issue of the Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz is entirely dedicated to research on schistosomiasis, as a part of the celebration of the centennial anniversary of the discovery of Schistosoma mansoni in Brazil by Pirajá da Silva in 1908. This issue was organized by the Integrated Schistosomiasis Program of the Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (PIDE-Fiocruz) following the 11th International Symposium on Schistosomiasis, held in August 2008 at the city of Salvador, state of Bahia, Brazil. The Symposium is currently the most important world-wide event about this important endemic disease and plays a significant role in the global efforts towards its control as public health problem.

This issue of the Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz consists of 39 outstanding articles by 165 scientists from 30 leading national and international institutions. The articles range from the discovery of new products and tools (discovery research) to the evaluation of new or improved strategies for intervention in real-life settings (implementation research). They include aspects of genomics, immunopathology, biochemistry, molecular biology, ecology and epidemiology as well as diagnostic tools, treatment schemes, control strategies and public health policies.

We hope that the papers published in the present issue reflect the state-of-the-art of the scientific knowledge about this important public health problem, as well as the commitment of the schistosomiasis scientific community with providing sound, research-based evidence for its control.

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