El cólera en el Buenos Aires del siglo XIX / The cholera in Buenos Aires of the XIX century

Presenta una explicación de las epidemias de cólera en el siglo XIX, Buenos Aires. Tal como ocurrió con la lepra –confundidacon otras afecciones con manifestaciones en la piel–, el cólera debe haber dado motivo a diagnósticos erróneos, sospechado anteotras enfermedades gastrointestinales con diarreas y vómitos, lo que dificulta señalar con exactitud su verdadero comienzo como epidemia que diezmaba a las poblaciones. Fue conocida como cólera simple, cólera nostras, cólera europeo, cólera infantil y cólera morbo. Sendrail no hace mucho hincapié por dilucidar esa confusión: “Se llama disentería a todas las afecciones caracterizadas por exoneraciones sangrantes y flemonosas, inevitables y múltiples. Se trata de un grupo confuso que reúne diversas enfermedades todavía no individualizadas; es muy probable que muchas de ellas sean disenterías bacilares. En 1626, Senne afirma que son contagiosas. Frecuentemente asociadas al tifus, la disentería se observa sobretodo en los ejércitos en lucha”.

[Community participation and control of endemic diseases in Brazil: problems and possibilities]. / Problemas e possibilidades de participação comunitária no controle das grandes endemias no Brasil.

Community participation (CP) is considered one of the most important elements for the control of endemic diseases in poor countries, particularly for prevention and epidemiological surveillance. Mainly affecting the poorest segments of the population, endemic diseases are costly and require specific government action aimed at efficient, egalitarian, universal health system, where CP acts in a guardian, monitoring capacity and entails other specific tasks. Despite its rationality, CP has not been encouraged in countries like Brazil, due to the highly centralized nature of political power and activity. Several examples and situations of CP in Brazilian endemic diseases are described and discussed in the article. CP for endemic disease control should be seen as an ongoing social process, a profound social exercise, and a great challenge for the country as a whole and the new Unified Health System now being implemented in Brazil.

Quarantine and the problem of AIDS.

Through history, quarantine has been a response not only to the mode of disease transmission, but also to popular demands for a boundary between the kind of people so diseased and the respectable people who hope to remain healthy. Efforts to control epidemics--leprosy, cholera, tuberculosis, drug addiction--through quarantine of large numbers of people have never been successful. AIDS patients share characteristics often invoked in defense of quarantine; they do have reason to fear anachronistic and unenlightened outrage.