Anisakid larva from the throat of an Alaskan Eskimo.
An anisakid nematode, identified as Phocanema sp. fourth-stage larva, was "pulled" from the throat of a 46-year-old Alaskan Eskimo. The nematode is described and illustrated.
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An anisakid nematode, identified as Phocanema sp. fourth-stage larva, was "pulled" from the throat of a 46-year-old Alaskan Eskimo. The nematode is described and illustrated.
This article explores the question of whether different social control mechanisms contribute to social disorganization and consequent deviance. Two groups of Yup'ik Eskimo were compared on reported felonies and misdemeanors. One group belongs to a sovereignty movement called the "Yupi'it Nation." Some member villages in this group have abolished their own tribal courts. The other group has maintained relationships with the state of Alaska and relies on Western law enforcement to maintain social order. There are statistically significant differences in amounts of reported felonies and misdemeanors. This may be due to differential deviance, differential reporting, or a combination of both. Because of the political position of the sovereignty villages, however, it seems clear that they are using more traditional methods of dealing with disruptive behavior. Use of traditional social control may contribute to social cohesiveness, thereby reducing deviance. Differential Deviance and Social Control Mechanisms.
Organochlorine (OC) levels in liver and blubber of 20 bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) collected during the Eskimo subsistence harvest at Barrow (Alaska, USA) in 1992 and 1993 are presented. Liver sum DDT (lipid weight) was significantly greater in male whales than in females. Most of the organochlorines measured were at higher levels in longer (older) than in shorter (younger) males. For female bowhead whales, hexachlorobenzene and lipid levels decreased and other OC levels did not change significantly with increasing length. Most organochlorine contaminants have low concentrations in tissues of the bowhead whale compared to concentrations in tissues of other cetaceans, especially Odontocetes. Based on allowable daily intakes (ADI) levels established by the Canadian Northern Contaminants Program (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) "safe" levels of blubber to consume were calculated. Chlordane levels in bowhead whale blubber results in the most restrictive consumption amount (50 g blubber/day). We expect no adverse effects related to these organochlorine contaminants to occur in bowhead whales or in consumers of their tissues. However, investigation of low level chronic exposure effects and a more rigorous assessment of histopathology, biomarkers, and immune status in the bowhead whale would be required to conclude "no effect" with more certainty.
The goal of the Wenger Eskimo Database Project is to develop a full-text database of early and primary written ethnographic sources in English on Inuit/Eskimo peoples and to make it available on CD-ROM, both to northern residents and to students and researchers dealing with northern topics. This paper describes the database, sets out a brief history of its growth, and describes recent developments, including the addition of new materials and a Windows format. The paper includes a demonstration of how the database may be used for health-related research. The database is available free of charge to nonprofit institutions that are willing to meet some simple, basic requirements.
OBJECTIVE: To define the clinical spectrum and disease manifestations of spondyloarthropathy (SpA) as seen in a community, rather than a referral setting. METHODS: Eighty percent (83/104) of all individuals identified as having SpA in a community wide epidemiologic study of Alaskan Eskimos and 83 age and sex matched controls from the same regions participated in a 5 year clinical study. The study included baseline and followup interviews, physical, radiographic, and electrocardiographic examinations, record reviews, and functional assessment. The medical records of an additional 83 age and sex matched controls were reviewed and followed over the same 5 year period. RESULTS: The spectrum of disease varied from very mild undifferentiated SpA (USpA) to incapacitating ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Most cases were mild. Overlapping clinical features were common in the different syndromes; 10% of the cases met more than 1 set of disease criteria. Axial signs and symptoms were more frequent in patients with AS, but occurred in over half of the patients with USpA and reactive arthritis (ReA) also. Peripheral joint involvement was noted in 85% of the AS cases, usually early in the course of disease. The patterns of joint involvement and enthesopathy were similar in SpA subjects with different syndromes and significantly different from those in control subjects. Patients with AS had a higher frequency of uveitis and of aortic root disease than patients with other syndromes. CONCLUSION: The results illustrate the extent of shared clinical features in the different SpA syndromes, and describe the frequency of different features associated with SpA in patients and matched controls in a community setting. ReA and USpA were more prevalent and less severe than AS in these populations.
OBJECTIVES: To determine the relative severity and compare the clinical expression of spondyloarthropathy (SpA) in men and women. METHODS: A clinical study was conducted in 43 women and 40 men who made up 80% of all individuals identified as having SpA in a community-wide epidemiologic study of Alaskan Eskimos. The study included interviews, physical, laboratory, radiographic and electrocardiographic examinations, record reviews, and functional assessments. A measure of relative severity was developed to evaluate disease impact in individual patients. The results in men and women were compared. RESULTS: No significant differences between men and women were found in many features, including the age of onset, frequency of inflammatory joint swelling or inflammatory back pain, physical signs of sacroiliitis, presence of skin changes, or positive family history of SpA. Women were less likely to have sacroiliac joint fusion, advanced spinal changes, uveitis, severe cardiac conduction and valvular abnormalities, and elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rates. According to our relative severity measure, a smaller proportion of women had severe disease than men. CONCLUSION: Although as many women as men were affected by SpA in the communities studied, severe disease was seen more often in men and a number of disease manifestations were more frequent or more marked in men. These discrepancies in disease severity and expression may contribute to the underdiagnosis of SpA in women and the long standing impression that SpA is a disease predominantly of men.
Jejunal biopsies from 19 adult Greenland Eskimos were studied regarding disaccharidases, two intracellular beta-galactosidases, and morphological appearance. Fifteen of the patients (79%) had low lactase activity, and 3 of these (16%) had sucrase-isomaltase deficiency as well. Two patients had low trehalase activity. Microscopical appearance was essentially normal in all the biopsies, except for a certain stromal plasma cell infiltration. All the patients with low lactase activity had a measurable residual activity of brush border lactase, which was localized in the middle and apical parts of villi, as normally seen for digestive enzymes. Lysosomal acid beta-galactosidase and cytosol hetero beta-galactosidase were not altered. In the patients with sucrase-isomaltase deficiency there was a complete absence of active sucrase-isomaltase complex. The residual maltase, as well as the very weak residual isomaltase, was exerted exclusively by the heat stable maltases (maltase II and III). The material is the first one in which multiple, but not generalized disaccharidase deficiencies are demonstrated.
A new type of serum cholinesterase deficiency with less than 10% of the normal activity was found in an Alaskan Eskimo. The new type of deficiency appeared to be allelic with two types previously described in this population.
Ten local populations of Reindeer Chukchi and four local populations of Asiatic Eskimos were surveyed for variation of nine polymorphic loci (MN, Ss, Cc, Ee, Duffy, AcP, PGM1, Hp, G3M). Pairwise linkage disequilibria were estimated from multilocus genotype frequencies using the Hill's method. Large amounts of linkage disequilibrium were found for the two pairs of linked genes MNSs and CcEe. The same pattern of non-random association between unlinked loci PGM1 and AcP was found in all subpopulations of both tribes that is induced by natural selection.
In a Yupik Eskimo population, the prevalence, incidence and clinical features of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were similar to those described for the United States population in general. More frequent than RA were seronegative spondyloarthropathic disorders, many of which could not be classified by existing disease criteria. Of the adult patients with spondyloarthropathy only half could be classified as having Reiter's syndrome (RS), ankylosing spondylitis (AS) or psoriatic spondylitis. The remaining patients had many signs and symptoms consistent with spondyloarthropathy, but they either did not meet the diagnostic criteria for any specific disease or had features pathognomonic of more than one. The clinical manifestations of the patients who did not meet standard disease definitions are summarized and compared to those of the patients with RS, AS and psoriatic spondylitis. Because of the many shared features, we believe that these as yet unclassified disease states belong with AS and RS in a single spondyloarthropathic disease spectrum and should be defined and recognized as such.
The epidemiological model Eskimo has been utilized to simulate some epidemiological parameters relative to tuberculosis in a restricted geographical area of northern Italy. After having identified a series of features relative to the regimens applied in the area in the period 1982-86 and which were found to be compatible with the observed data, this hypothesis has been utilized to project data on tuberculosis for the period 1986-1996. The results have indicated that the incidence in the area should stabilize around values of 20 new cases per year (per 100,000 population). A decrease in the incidence can be expected to occur only if the regimens so far employed are brought to a greater part of the patients' population (increasing coverage). The effects of importing the disease from developing countries through immigration and of the AIDS epidemic are likely to negatively affect the trend of tuberculosis incidence in the future.
In 1981, a hepatitis B virus vaccine demonstration project was conducted in 1630 Yupik Eskimos in southwest Alaska. Levels of antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen and markers for hepatitis B virus infection in vaccinees were monitored yearly for 5 years. After 5 years of follow-up, 19% of those who initially had an immune response to vaccine of 10 sample ratio units or greater subsequently had levels of antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen lower than 10 sample ratio units. During the 5 years after the first dose of vaccine, in three responders and one person with an antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen response lower than 10 sample ratio units, antibody to hepatitis B core antigen developed, and the level of antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen was boosted. Hepatitis B surface antigen did not develop in any subjects, and none had clinical hepatitis. In the 5 years following the demonstration project, the annual incidence of hepatitis B virus infection decreased from 50 cases per 1000 population before the vaccine trial to 0.45 per 1000.
Soft drink intake among Yup'ik Eskimo teenagers was assessed as part of a monitoring system for a nutrition education intervention project. Soft drink intakes were found to be three to four times greater than in the general US teenage population. Over half of the soft drinks consumed were in the form of sweetened non-carbonated beverages, e.g., Tang, Koolaid. At the end of two years of intervention, soft drink consumption decreased by 10% in the 10 intervention villages as a whole, while intakes decreased by 4% in the 4 control villages. Soda pop consumption alone decreased by 18% in the intervention villages and increased by 20% in control villages.
A 1960-62 study of southwestern Alaskan Eskimos documented an infant mortality rate--102.6 deaths per 1,000 live births--that was four times greater than that of U.S. whites. In 1980-81, 20 years after the original study, a similar cohort was identified in this population so that changes in infant mortality and other birth characteristics could be examined. Average birth weight and the amount of prenatal care received by the mothers increased from 1960 to 1980. Birth weight and prenatal visits were positively correlated. Results of the followup also revealed a 1980-81 infant mortality rate--17.1 deaths per 1,000 live births--that was less than a fifth of the 1960-62 rate and no longer significantly different from the national rate. Major changes associated with the decrease in mortality during the first 28 days of life (neonatal mortality) were a significant increase in the proportion of infants born in hospitals and an associated decrease in the number of deaths of infants weighing less than 2,500 grams at birth. The reduction in mortality during the rest of the first year of life was related to a decrease in deaths due to infectious diseases, particularly measles and pertussis. Changes in infant mortality reflect the increased availability of health care in this region, improved immunization programs, and the establishment of the Bethel Prematernal Home in Bethel, AK.
We reviewed rheumatic diseases in an Inupiat Eskimo population and found a high frequency of seronegative spondyloarthritides. Most cases of juvenile arthritis, which occurred with particularly high incidence in male children (47.4/100,000), appeared to belong in the spondyloarthropathic category. Both Reiter's disease and undifferentiated spondyloarthropathy were common disorders in adults. The prevalence of ankylosing spondylitis (0.2%) was less than expected in a population with a high percentage of HLA-B27 positive individuals. The prevalence rates of rheumatoid arthritis (1.0%), gout (0.3%), and other rheumatic diseases were similar to those of the United States population in general.
Chlamydia trachomatis genital infections often go unrecognized where specific culture diagnosis is not easily accessible. We studied the prevalence and clinical correlates of C trachomatis in a geographically isolated Alaskan Eskimo population with a high rate of gonorrhea but for whom specific chlamydial diagnosis had never been available. Using a direct immunofluorescent stain of endocervical secretions, we screened 493 women (52% of all women of reproductive age) when they presented to regional health facilities during the year-long study period. Chlamydia trachomatis was identified in 23% (114/493), including 39% (31/80) of teenagers, 30% (34/115) of prenatal patients, 47% (7/15) of pregnant teens, and 40% (8/19) of women with pelvic inflammatory disease. Genital symptoms, clinical signs, and the presence of concomitant gonorrhea were ineffective means of identifying chlamydial infection. This study demonstrates the successful use, and public health importance, of nonculture direct testing to document the unrecognized high prevalence of C trachomatis infection where culture diagnosis is not available.
Myopia is common in Western populations but is considered rare in nonindustrialized population groups. However, studies in undeveloped areas of the Arctic and sub-Arctic have demonstrated increased rates of myopia among young Inuit adults indigenous to the region. We examined the refractive status of Yupik Eskimos, a group that had not previously been evaluated. Our subjects were young adults born between November 1960 and December 1962 to persons living in 10 villages in southwestern Alaska. The refractive status was obtained for 92% of these persons. The prevalence of myopia (refractive error -0.50 D or greater) was 68%, a rate among the highest reported for a general population anywhere in the world. The young women were significantly more myopic than the young men (mean refractive errors -1.91 and -1.36 D respectively). Astigmatism and myopia were positively correlated (r = 0.20, p less than 0.01). The etiology of myopia in this population is under study.
Phenotyping for isoniazid inactivation in Canadian Eskimos and Indians showed that the former are all fast acetylators, while only 63.4% of the Indians examined belonged to the same group. Further studies are suggested to confirm this initial finding.During the investigation metabolic studies were carried out to devise a reliable urine test for phenotyping of isoniazid inactivators, to replace the fall-off technique which required venipunctures. The simplicity of the new urine test makes it suitable for mass examinations.