PRISMATIC case: bienvenidos a mi tierra de soledad: from poetry to molecular biology in southern Ecuador.
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DNA extracted from peripheral blood of two Ecuadorian patients showing severe digestive pathology was amplified by the polymerase chain reaction using a Trypanosoma cruzi specific oligonucleotide primers derived from the primary sequence of a cDNA encoding for a 24 kDa excretory/secretory protein. The positive PCR results together with the clinical findings confirmed that both patients had a digestive pathology due to Chagas' disease. This pathology could be more frequent than previously described in the chagasic endemic regions of Andean countries.
Trends in prevalence rates of onchocercal ocular lesions were examined over the period 1980 to 1990 using data from two cross-sectional surveys. There was evidence for increasing prevalence of anterior chamber microfilariae, iridocyclitis, optic atrophy, and chorioretinopathy. Large increases in prevalence, in particular, were seen for posterior segment lesions: optic atrophy increased from 2.7% to 6.4% and chorioretinopathy from 8.8% to 35.6%. Greatest increases in these lesions were seen in the Chachi which was attributed to the large increases in prevalence of microfilariae in the anterior chamber particularly in those aged 30 years or greater. The study findings suggest that ocular onchocerciasis is evolving in parallel with the well documented parasitological changes.
Taenia solium-taeniasis and cysticercosis were studied in the human and porcine populations of a rural community in the Southern Ecuadorian Andes. From the 1059 inhabitants, 800 serum samples and 958 stool samples could be collected. In addition, 646 from the estimated 1148 pigs were tongue inspected. Circulating antigen was detected by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (Ag-ELISA) in 2.25% of the human population, whereas intestinal taeniasis was detected in 1.46% by the formalin-ether technique. Following treatment and recovery of tapeworm fragments these were all identified as T. solium. Porcine cysticercosis was diagnosed in 3.56% of the pigs by tongue inspection. In addition, enzyme linked immunoelectrotransfer blot (EITB) was performed on a subset group of 100 humans to confirm the results of the Ag-ELISA. One hundred serum samples from pigs were also analysed by EITB. It appeared that 43 and 74% of humans and pigs had antibodies against T. solium cysticerci, respectively. It is concluded that contrary to the high exposure of the human population to T. solium that is suggested by EITB, the number of active cysticercosis cases, diagnosed by Ag-ELISA, was low, which may indicate endemic stability. The further use of complementary diagnostic methods for a better understanding of the epidemiology of T. solium is suggested.
Nurses must always ask its clients about problems with the abusive use of alcohol in its families, independently of the professional speciality. The objective of this study was to describe the conception of the family members of young children with problems of health that attend to an ambulatorial service about the habit of alcohol and tobacco use. Nine family members were interviewed and the interviews had been analyzed through the content analysis. The existence of alcohol in the family arose as a complaint. Six of the nine families have consumers of alcohol and tobacco in different generations. Interviewees that had identified recurrent behavior of alcohol and tobacco consumption abuse had searched resources to stabilize and the change intrafamiliar dynamic without success. The main problem is the lack of authority of the women, typical of the Latino American family.
The present investigation had as objective identifying in a family the possible factors of risk related to the use of alcohol and tobacco in the children and adolescents. It is important to emphasize that study of this nature within a social and culture perspective expresses the attempt to include/understand the factors of risk for the use of tobacco and to drink alcoholic the environmental influences in the familiar surroundings views to prevent futures cases with dependency. For the study used a sample of one hundred families, to that applied to an instrument pre to them established with the people in charge of the respective families. As result were obtained 51% of the schooling level are low, 54% has inferior wage to the basic one, 61% to drink alcoholic. To emphasize that unquestionable the reduction of the casuistry of alcoholism and/or tabaquismo to influence significantly in the quality of the individuals life.
This study analyzed the efficiency of cholera treatment in three hospitals representative of the Ecuadorian public health system in order to provide hospital directors and administrators and health service policy-makers with information to plan responses to future epidemics and to reduce the costs of cholera treatment in general. For the study, total and excess cholera treatment costs were calculated using hospital files and statistics and an in-hospital surveillance system of the cholera cases. The type and quantity of each input used for each treatment were analyzed, as well as the number of days hospitalized, according to the severity of the illness. With this process, excess costs were determined in relation to a "treatment norm" that would have been appropriate for each patient. The researchers found that 45% of the cholera treatment costs were excessive. The most important contributor was excess recurrent costs (90%), including extended hospital stays, disproportionate use of intravenous rehydration solutions, and unnecessary laboratory tests. Excess capital costs, from land, buildings, and hospital equipment, represented 10% of the total excess treatment costs. No significant relationship was found between treatment costs and the severity of the illness, nor between costs and a patient's age. A patient's sex appeared to be an important variable, with the cost of treating women being notably higher than for men. An inverse relationship was found between treatment costs and the complexity of the hospital. The researchers concluded there was an inefficient use of resources in the treatment of cholera in the three hospitals where the research was performed.
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One strain of atypical rotavirus, morphologically indistinguishable from known rotaviruses but lacking the common group antigen of typical rotavirus detectable by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), was isolated from one of 152 Ecuadorian infants with acute rotavirus gastroenteritis. The genome analysis by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis revealed a unique RNA pattern clearly distinct from that of typical rotaviruses.
Cosmocerca vrcibradici n. sp. and Oswaldocruzia vitti n. sp., intestinal parasites of Prionodactylus eigenmanni (type host) and P. oshaughnessyi, are described and illustrated. Of the 19 valid species of Cosmocerca, C. vrcibradici n. sp. represents the 12th Neotropical species and the first species to be reported from lizard hosts. Of the 76 valid species of Oswaldocruzia, O. vitti n. sp. represents the 14th Neotropical species and the eighth species to be reported from lizard hosts. In addition, 1 species of Digenea, Mesocoelium monas, and 1 species of Acanthocephala, Acanthocephalus saurius, were found.
Bone mineral content was measured by photon absorptiometry of the radius in an Ecuadorian population noted for longevity and for rarity of fractures and spinal curvature in the elderly. Bone mass, after covariance adjustment for age, height, weight, and bone width, was 15% below values for U.S. whites, indicating that the rarity of skeletal problems was not due to high bone mass or diminution of aging bone loss.
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Epizootics of an infectious cuticular epithelial necrosis virus (ICENV) occurred in cultured Penaeus vannamei in Ecuadorian shrimp farms from 1994 to 1996. There were few reports of outbreaks during 1997, but in the second half of 1998 epizootics were again reported. Histopathological examination revealed extensive tissue changes and necrosis as described for infections by what others have called Taura syndrome virus (TSV). Infiltration of haemocytes in the cuticular epithelium was also one of the characteristics in the subacute and acute forms of this disease. Electron microscopy of affected tissues demonstrated the presence of a single type of virus particle in the cytoplasm of diseased shrimps from these outbreaks and it corresponded to the published descriptions for TSV. The epizootics of ICENV were periodic in occurrence, and data indicated that they might be related to the oceanographic and climatic variations reported in the eastern Pacific from 1994 to 1998. Using 3 mo rolling averages, a statistically significant negative correlation was found between prevalence of ICENV and temperature but not temperature change. By contrast, there was a statistically significant positive correlation between prevalence of ICENV and salinity change but not salinity value. Although these data do not establish causal relationships, they suggest that laboratory tests should be conducted to determine whether low temperature and upward changes in salinity can increase shrimp susceptibility to infection and mortality by ICENV.