La evolución viral y su relevancia para los virus transmitidos por alimentos / Viral evolution and its relevance for virus transmission via food

La comprensión científica requiere tanto comprobaciones científicas como teorías que puedan explicar esos hechos en una manera coherente. La evolución es, en este contexto, tanto un hecho como una teoría. Es un hecho incontrovertible que los organismos han cambiado, o evolucionado, durante la historia de la vida en la Tierra...La incongruencia que resulta de intentar explicar hechos de una gran complejidad mediante conceptos elaborados para explicar procesos muy simples sólo puede conducir a nuestra disciplina a una gran confusión. Ante esta situación, parece razonaable insistir en la necesidad de elaborar una base teórica sustentada en datos reales (no en hipótesis), que sea capaz de integrar y explicar coherente y cientificamente los fenómenos y los procesos biológicos pasados y, como consecuencia, haga posible una mejor comprensión de los actuales.

Scientific understanding requires both facts and theories that can explain those facts in a coherent manner. Evolution, in this context, is both a fact and a theory. It is an incontrovertible fact that organisms have changed, or evolved, during the history of life on Earth...The incongruity resulting from try to explain facts with a huge complexity by means fo concepts elaborated to explain very simple processes only can lead to our discipline into a big confussion. At this point it seems reasonable to insist in the need of a new theoretical framework, not founded on hypothesis but on real data. A theoretical framework able to coherently integrate, and scientifically explain, the biological processes of the past and therefore, able to provide a better understanding of the present ones.

[Epidemiology and risk factors associated to foodborne and infant botulism: where and when?]. / Epidemiología y factores de riesgo asociados al botulismo de los alimentos y al botulismo infantil: ¿Dónde y cuándo?

Foodborne botulism is caused by ingestión of a preformed toxin produced in food by C. botulinum. The most frequent source is home-canned foods, in which spores that survive an inadequate cooking and canning process germinate, reproduce, and produce this toxin in the anaerobic environment of the canned food. From 1992 to 2003, 34 cases of food-borne cases and 275 cases of infant botulism were reported in Argentina. The severity of symptoms depends on the amount of toxin ingested. Mild cases may not seek medical attention at all. A patient presenting only nausea and mild neurological symptoms may not raise the physician's attention and therefore the case will not be reported. It is important to make physicians aware of this potentially fatal disease. In Argentina, most botulism cases are related to home-canned food. Therefore, botulism can be prevented through the education of consumers in order to discourage the consumption of that kind of food.

Epidemiología y factores de riesgo asociados al botulismo de los alimentos y al botulismo infantil: ¿Dónde y cuándo? / Epidemiology and risk factors associated to foodborne and infant botulism: Where and when?

Foodborne botulism is caused by ingestión of a preformed toxin produced in food by C. botulinum. The most frequent source is home-canned foods, in which spores that survive an inadequate cooking and canning process germinate, reproduce, and produce this toxin in the anaerobic environment of the canned food. From 1992 to 2003, 34 cases of food-borne cases and 275 cases of infant botulism were reported in Argentina. The severity of symptoms depends on the amount of toxin ingested. Mild cases may not seek medical attention at all. A patient presenting only nausea and mild neurological symptoms may not raise the physician's attention and therefore the case will not be reported. It is important to make physicians aware of this potentially fatal disease. In Argentina, most botulism cases are related to home-canned food. Therefore, botulism can be prevented through the education of consumers in order to discourage the consumption of that kind of food.

La causa más frecuente de botulismo de los alimentos es la elaboración y consumo de conservas caseras, que son procesadas de manera inapropiada, creando un ambiente anaeróbico que favorece la supervivencia de las esporas, su germinación, reproducción y síntesis de toxina. Entre 1992 y 2003, se han notificado en Argentina 34 casos de botulismo transmitido por alimentos y 275 casos de botulismo infantil. La gravedad de los síntomas depende de la ingesta de esporas viables por el paciente. Formas leves de botulismo pueden no requerir asistencia médica en absoluto, por lo que si un paciente presenta sólo náuseas y ligeros síntomas neurológicos, existe la posibilidad de que un caso de botulismo pueda no ser diagnosticado. En Argentina, la mayoría de los casos de botulismo se relacionan con alimentos de preparación casera. Es importante para la prevención, educar a los consumidores, desincentivando la ingesta de este tipo de alimentos.