Identification of two potential aetiological agents of chronic diarrhoea in an immunocompromised patient in Cuba using conventional and molecular diagnostic techniques.

The aetiology of diarrhoea in a patient in Cuba with HIV was investigated. Although molecular diagnostics are still not used in many under-resourced settings, here traditional methods were supported by use of PCR. This approach enabled detection of a dual infection (Cystoisospora belli and Enterocytozoon bieneusi), the latter of which was not identified by microscopy with Didier's trichromic staining.

Cuban Strategy and Medical Cooperation to Combat Ebola, 2014-2016.

The Ebola virus is a pathogen that causes high morbidity and mortality in epidemic events during which health personnel are frequently infected. Such an epidemic occurred in West Africa, prompting WHO to issue a call in 2014 for health personnel to be dispatched to affected countries. Cuba responded and signed an assistance agreement under which 265 Cuban health professionals, members of the Henry Reeve Emergency Medical Contingent, volunteered their services in the Republic of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Pharmacogenetic Markers: A Path toward Individualized HIV Therapy.

INTRODUCTION Approximately 73% of persons with HIV who receive antiretroviral therapy in Cuba are in viral suppression. The non-response of the remaining 27% could be due to several factors including adverse drug reactions and HIV resistance to antiretroviral drugs, as well as social factors and idiosyncratic characteristics of each patient. Genetic information explains from 20% to 95% of a drug's effects and variations in response.

HIV-1 Antiretroviral Resistance in Cuba, 2009-2014.

INTRODUCTION By the end of 2017, there were more than 28,000 individuals living with HIV in Cuba, over 80% receiving antiretroviral therapy, which dramatically reduces viral replication, improves immune status and decreases risk of transmission. These results could be jeopardized by emergence of HIV-1 drug resistance. In 2009, a test for HIV-1 genotypic resistance was introduced in routine clinical practice in Cuba.

US and Cuban Scientists Forge Collaboration on Arbovirus Research.

After December 17, 2014, when the US and Cuban governments announced their intent to restore relations, the two countries participated in various exchange activities in an effort to encourage cooperation in public health, health research and biomedical sciences. The conference entitled Exploring Opportunities for Arbovirus Research Collaboration, hosted at Havana's Hotel Nacional, was part of these efforts and was the first major US-Cuban scientific conference in over 50 years. Its purpose was to share information about current arbovirus research and recent findings, and to explore opportunities for future joint research.

Quality of life of people with HIV/AIDS receiving antiretroviral therapy in Cuba: a cross-sectional study of the national population.

Objectives: We studied the effect of antiretroviral therapy (ART) on the quality of life (QOL) of Cubans with HIV/AIDS.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study including administration of the Medical Outcomes Study-HIV Health Survey Questionnaire to a representative sample of the 1592 Cubans receiving ART in 2004. For univariate analyses, we compared mean HIV scale scores.

[Effect of Vimang in HIV/AIDS patients].

Introduction: the oxidative stress (OS) has been recognized as a co-factor of HIV infection evolution to AIDS condition.

Objectives: to evaluate the possible antioxidant effect and the impact on the functioning of several systems in the body, resulting in the toxicological safety of Vimang use.

Methods: sixty eight HIV-seropositive patients were double-blind randomized in two groups; the first was supplied with Vimang during six months and the other with placebo.

[Factors linked to rapid progression to AIDS in Cuban subjects].

Introduction: in the last few years, the number of HIV Cuban patients expressing rapid clinical and immunologic deterioration has increased.

Objective: to find out the possible factors associated to rapid progression to AIDS.

Methods: a case-control study was carried out with the objective of determining possible factors associated with rapid progression to AIDS.

[Change in the survival of Cuban AIDS patients with tuberculosis in the Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) era].

HIV infection affected 0.06% of the Cuban population and AIDS associated tuberculosis (TB) represented 4.4% of cases in 2004.

[Influence of the viral subtype in the progression of HIV patients].

A longitudinal study of 161 HIV-positive patients seen at "Pedro Kouri" Institute of Tropical Medicine was conducted to assess the influence of viral recombination in the outcome of patients infected by the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). The cohort was divided into two groups: Recombinant and Non Recombinant, depending on the viral subtype or recombinant form accounting for the infection. The participants from each group were observed for 18 months and compared in terms of time to developing AIDS, frequency of opportunistic diseases, survival and speed of reduction of CD4 T lymphocytes.

[Impact of highly active antiretroviral therapy in the clinical, immunological and virological response from AIDS patients].

A longitudinal prospective study was made to evaluate the clinical, immunological and virological response of a cohort of 34 AIDS patients in Cienfuegos provinces, who had been treated with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Males comprised 67.6% of the total number and average age was 32 years.

[Clinical start of AIDS in Cuba].

Sixty three patients were studied using sociodemographic, behavioral, clinical-immunological and risk factor variables. The objective was to estimate the size of clinical start of AIDS in Cuba and characterize these patients in terms of potentially associated factors. Clinical start represented 4.

[Dynamics of contracting HIV seen in its social, environmental and cultural dimension].

The adaptation of Coreil et al's communicable disease model to the dynamics of contracting HIV from the sensitive individual perspective was intended to be explained in this article. A literature review on the situation of this disease in Cuba and worldwide by developing the phylosophical debate on concepts and the basis for a different risk approach was made. The applicability and usefulness of this model for the study of determinants involved in HIV infection was shown.

[AIDS and hemophilia in pediatrics: report of a case].

It is reported the case of a 12-year-old white school boy with diagnosis of degree III hemophilia A since he was 2 months old that had received innumerable transfusions of cryoprecipitate and several of blood. In 1999, he was diagnosed hepatitis C and, at the end of 2000, HIV infection. There was a high possibility of having acquired them both by the blood and hemoderivative transfusions received.

[Antiretroviral therapy in HIV/AIDS seropositive pregnant women in Cuba].

It was assessed that the number of HIV infected children due to vertical transmission increases every day and that is why the early diagnosis in the HIV+ pregnat women and the administration of antivirals in the prenatal stage to reduce the transmission is so important. Taking these factors into account, from 1997 on, it was decided in Cuba to administer AZT to all HIV+ pregnant women and to the newborn infant, as it is established in the protocol 076, which considerably reduced the number of infected children.