[Primary-care morbidity and true morbidity due to acute respiratory infections]. / Morbilidad asistida y morbilidad real por infecciones respiratorias agudas.

The present work presents the study of morbidity due to acute respiratory infections (ARI) in areas of the town of Lisa in Ciudad Habana, and Isla Juventud (Cuba), to characterize different aspects of morbidity measured by health care attendance and to measure true morbidity. About 90% of consultations for ARI were first-time consultations, while their ratio to further consultations was 5.3. True morbidity rates (TMR), obtained trough active research, ranged from 110.4 to 163.4 cases per 1000 inhabitants, considerably higher than morbidity rates measured by primary care consultations (MRPCC) in the same time period. The true morbidity index (TMI), as measured by the ratio of the two previous rates, ranged from 5 to 15. A high proportion (47.6%) of cases reported no medical care attendance. These results provide approximate estimates of true morbidity in the study area, and allow the establishment of a new control program, also improving epidemiologic surveillance within primary care activities.

[Evaluation of an anti-influenza vaccine in a group of elderly]. / Evaluacion de la vacuna antigripal en un grupo de ancianos.

To 57 individuals of the Old People's Home in Güines and Artemisa Municipalities, without vaccinal contraindications, was administered and inactivated bivalent antigrippal vaccine with the antigenic content: A/Kiev/59/79 (H1N1) and A/Filipina/2/82 (H3N2). Trough the inhibition technique of hemagglutination in pair sera, satisfactory results (seroconversion) were obtained in more of the vaccinated individuals, for both antigens. Local reactions such as erythema and papule were observed. Nine patients were detected among the vaccinated individuals by the epidemiologic surveillance carried out a year after vaccination. The serologic study performed to five of them showed a case positive to influenza A (H3N2) and another one positive to influenza B.

[Evaluation of the anti-influenza vaccine in students from basic high school]. / Evaluación de la vacuna antigripal en escolares de secundaria básica.

The anti-influenza vaccine was applied to a group of 217 students of "Batalla del Jigüe" Secondary School which was compared to a group inoculated with the vaccine placebo with the view to evaluate the results of vaccine protection against the flue, as well as to determine its secondary effects in an adolescent population. There was a significant difference in the immunologic response in favor of the vaccine group as compared to controls for both strains of the antigenic contents of the vaccine Influenza A/Philippines/2/82 (H3N2)--A/Kiev/59/79 (H1H1). The local side effects found in the highest ratios in the group receiving the anti-influenza vaccine were papules (51.0%) and erythema (44.0%) with statistically significant differences in relation to the group receiving placebo. Fever was the general reaction most frequently found, for 8.4% 48 hours after its application among immunized students. During the subsequent epidemiologic surveillance a greater incidence of influenzal patients was found in students not receiving the anti-influenza vaccine. These results may serve as a starting point for new investigations in our environment.

[Report on the therapeutic use of rimantadine and amantadine]. / Reporte sobre el uso de la rimantadina y la amantadina.

A discussion is carried out about the experiences with the application of rimantadine and amantadine to patients with influenza. The basic general results consisted in the fact that 2 of the 74 patients treated had a high cure percent (> 68.0%) within the first 72 hours after using the drug. No new diseased were found among the 40 contacts to whom chemoprophylaxis was applied. There were only 3.9% adverse reactions among the total number of people treated with amantadine.

[Experience with the use of amantadine for the control of an influenza outbreak at an Elderly Home]. / Experiencias del uso de la amantadina en el control de un brote de gripe en un Hogar de Ancianos.

A study of an outbreak of acute respiratory disease was done at the "Carlos Font Pupo" Old People's Home. Las Tunas Province, where 30 diseased old individuals were detected; grippe was diagnosed to two of them. General attack rate was 8.6%. Curative treatment with amantadine was administered to 29 old patients and chemoprophylaxis to 26, for a total of 55 old individuals treated. The evolution of the patients was satisfactory and none new case was observed. Diarrhea was the only one secondary reaction observed in a patient under chemoprophylactic treatment. The need to carry on performing similar studies is pointed out.

[Cholera in a district of Peru]. / El cólera en un distrito de Perú.

Taking to consideration the low report of cholera patients and with the main knowing the reality about the introduction of Vibrio cholerae (V. cholerae) in Peru, a sample of 101 cases with acute diarrheal disease (ADD) was taken at the Distrito Villa El Salvador. They were selected by a systematic randomized sampling defined for each health care unit in the District, according to the daily average occurrence of ADD cases attended a week before the beginning of the study. All of them took part in a epidemiological survey. A sample was taken by rectal swab in order to isolate V. cholerae. 53 positive cases were found (52.2% and a confidence interval from 42.29 to 62.5%) with significant differences (p < 0.01) between the frequency in adults (67.3%) and children (34.8%). V. cholerae was isolated only in 13 (61.9%) of the 21 cases who had contact with cholera patients, for a relative risk of 1.24 (0.83 < RR < 1.85). A high positivity was also found, 21 cases (72.4%) among those who had raw food. A significant difference (p < 0.01) was observed in connection with those who had cooked food. In the multivariate logistic regression analysis it was only found a significant relationship with age and with the ingestion of raw food as regards the occurrence of cholera.