Street food vending in Latin America.

Despite occasional attempts to repress it, street food vending in Latin America appears to be on the rise--encouraged by growing marginal urban populations, the unemployed status of innumerable potential street vendors, lengthening commutes for workers, public demand for cheap and culturally appropriate food near workplaces, and a shortage or absence of regular establishments serving such food. Besides placing a hidden burden on public services, the generally unregulated and quasi-clandestine street food industry tends to observe poor hygienic practices and to pose significant public health problems. Within this context, Latin America's cholera epidemics have drawn increasing attention to street food's potential for disease transmission and have created growing support for attempts to resolve these troubles. What appears needed at this point, rather than futile attempts at abolition, is a new and more positive approach wherein countries change their regulations so as to permit peaceful and constructive adaptation of street food vending to a new style of Latin American social life. This implies legal reorganization directed at structurally developing street food vending and permitting application of measures--especially provision and use of safe water--that will foster good hygiene and safe foods. It also implies creating programs to provide appropriate training for inspectors as well as health education for both vendors and consumers of street food; and it implies promoting and adopting improved methods for preparing and selling such food. There is no reason to suppose these measures will provide an immediate panacea for the street food vending problem; but there is good reason to think they can immensely improve the situation that exists today.

A field evaluation in Mexico of four baits for oral rabies vaccination of dogs.

We evaluated four baits for the delivery of oral rabies vaccines to dogs. In a controlled study in a town in rural Mexico, 177 randomly selected dogs were assigned to receive one of four experimental baits (two of which were developed by the Denver Wildlife Research Center [DWRC]): one of two cylindrical polyurethane sponges with a corn meal coating (one fried in corn oil [DWRC-corn], the other in fish oil [DWRC-fish]), a fish-flavored polymer bait, or a wax bait. Each dog was also offered a commercial dog biscuit. We recorded whether or not the bait was completely consumed, and used the following measures to estimate the amount of oropharyngeal contact with each bait: total chewing time, presence of pieces of bait on the ground following administration, the total area of ground surrounding the location of ingestion that was covered with green dye contained in each bait, and condition of ampules that contained the dye. The dog biscuits were completely consumed significantly more often than the baits (155 of 176 [88%] for the biscuits versus 89 of 176 [50.5%] for the four baits; P less than 10(-6)), but were chewed for a significantly shorter time than the baits (mean time 34 sec for the biscuit versus 60-82 sec for the four baits: P less than 0.001). The ideal bait would probably combine the attractiveness of the commercial biscuit and the ability of the sponge baits to promote contact with the mucous membranes.

Prevention of canine rabies in rural Mexico: an epidemiologic study of vaccination campaigns.

We compared three vaccination strategies in three rural communities in Mexico to determine the factors associated with the success of vaccination programs in areas where canine rabies is poorly controlled. In town A, intensive publicity and community participation were used; owners were instructed to bring their dogs to temporary centralized clinics for vaccination. In town B, only brief precampaign publicity was used, followed by vaccination at a centralized site. Minimal publicity was also used in town C, but the vaccination campaign was conducted house to house. A total of 5,426 residents and 1,597 dogs were counted in the three towns (mean human:dog ratio 3.4:1). In Town A, 70.1% (472 of 673) of the dogs were vaccinated; the campaign required 40 person-minutes per dog. Significantly greater proportions were vaccinated in town B (262 of 318 [82.4%]; P less than 0.001) and town C (483 of 561 [86.1%]; P less than 0.00001); each of these latter campaigns required 10 person-minutes per dog. The following factors were positively associated (by multivariate analyses) with vaccination of individual dogs: non-intensive publicity, house-to-house vaccination, dogs owned by a single member of the household, and dogs acquired greater than 15 days after birth. Intensive publicity did not increase the overall success of the vaccination program; the efficiency of centralized versus and house-to-house vaccination was comparable.

Organization of mass vaccination for dog rabies in Brazil.

The present study reports results of the mass dog rabies vaccination campaigns that took place in Brazil between 1980 and 1985 as a measure of reducing the incidence of rabies in urban areas of the country. Particular focus is given to the organization of these campaigns, which took place on a single day in more than 1,000 towns in 20 states, including large metropolitan areas such as Rio de Janeiro. Three levels of public health services (federal, state, and municipal) were involved in the organization of these campaigns. The massive participation of the community is also emphasized. Nearly 100,000 people from different segments of the community, especially students and members of the armed forces and state military police, participated as vaccinators or in other roles on the national day of the dog rabies vaccination. Another fundamental point is the support given in the media by means of national and state broadcasts during the 2 weeks before the day of vaccination. The study shows a progressive decrease in the number of cases of rabies in dogs and in humans during the period, a decrease that can be reasonably attributed to the increase in the number of vaccinations for dog rabies. In 1980 there were reported 4,570 cases of rabies in dogs and 168 cases of rabies in humans; in 1985 the incidence was reduced to 496 and 52 cases, respectively.

Rabies in rodents and lagomorphs in the United States, 1971-1984: increased cases in the woodchuck (Marmota monax) in mid-Atlantic states.

A review of surveillance data on animal rabies from the Centers for Disease Control revealed 104 cases of rabies in rodents and lagomorphs for 1971 through 1984 in the United States; 80% of these were reported between 1980 and 1984. Woodchucks (Marmota monax) accounted for 64% of the cases. Most of the cases of rabies in woodchucks were associated with an epizootic of rabies in raccoons (Procyon lotor) in the mid-Atlantic states. In rabies endemic areas, humans exposed to woodchucks should receive rabies postexposure prophylaxis if the animal is not available for testing. The decision to administer postexposure prophylaxis to humans exposed to other rodents and lagomorphs should take into consideration the epidemiology of rabies in the exposing species.