COUNTING THE UNCOUNTABLE: ESTIMATING THE NUMBERS OF STREET CHILDREN

The development of a reproducible method to estimate numbers of street children is both timely and welcome given the traditional difficulties of doing so—funding agencies tend to underestimate numbers to protect limited resources, while aid organisations overestimate in a bid to secure financial support. Researchers used the capture-recapture method of constructing and comparing independent lists of street children in the Brazilian city of Aracaju (population 461 534), and returned an estimate of 1456, roughly halfway between the previously conflicting estimations of 200 to 3000. The authors note that no other gold standard exists to predict numbers, and the fact that this method is both reproducible and free from external manipulation makes it particularly appealing. (

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CLUSTERS LIKELY IN MENINGOCOCCAL DISEASE

Further cases of meningococcal disease are likely to develop after initial infection in schools and preschools in England and Wales. Surveillance was performed in educational settings between 1995 and 2001, with a total of 114 clusters identified (clusters being two or more cases of confirmed or probable meningococcal disease within four weeks in children attending the same institution). Raised relative …