Taeniosis is a neglected disease, particularly in developing countries, and is caused by infection with the adult tapeworm of either , and . Of these, is of primary concern due to the potential for cysticercosis should eggs be ingested. In Cuba, all cases of taeniosis are assumed to be caused by , although some cases of cysticercosis have been documented.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Unlike most high-income countries where subtype B viruses predominate, the Cuban HIV-1 epidemic is characterized by a great diversity of subtypes and circulating recombinant forms. Some studies have shown that HIV variants exhibiting a preference for the CXCR4 co-receptor (X4-tropic) could have impacts on disease pathogenesis, with clinical implications for antiviral treatment plans. Determination of HIV co-receptor tropism is crucial for clinicians in deciding whether maraviroc is an appropriate antiviral.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFINTRODUCTION Human papillomaviruses and Chlamydia tracho-matis are the most frequent causes of sexually transmitted infec-tions. Although the association between some human papillomavirus genotypes and cervical cancer has been demonstrated and Chla-mydia trachomatis infection is the most common cause of female infertility, Cuba has no national baseline studies on the circulation and co-circulation of these agents, the synergistic effect of which may be a risk factor for occurrence and development of precancer-ous cervical lesions. Additionally, few local studies have examined risk factors for infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFINTRODUCTION 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.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGiardiasis is considered the most common intestinal parasitic disease in humans worldwide. In Cuba, this infection has particularly a strong clinical impact on the child population. is a highly diverse protozoan, which comprises a complex of eight morphologically identical genetic assemblages, further divided into sub-assemblages.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground The international recommendations of antiretroviral treatment include resistance tests to guide the treatment regimen in each patient, which is not available on a regular basis in Ecuador. Aim To describe mutations that confer resistance to antiretrovirals in a population of Ecuadorian patients. Methods Plasma samples from 101 HIV-1 patients with failure to antiretroviral therapy, divided into 15 children and 86 adults, were studied with the GS Junior (Roche) and the sequences were analyzed with the DeepChek program.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Saliva samples could be used for follow-up of herpesviruses infection in pediatric transplant recipients.
Objective: With the aim of determining the frequency of herpesviral infections in saliva samples after transplantation, and the association with viremia and complications, a pilot longitudinal follow-up of pediatric Cuban transplanted recipients (kidney and liver) was performed.
Methods: Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction of cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein-Barr virus, herpes simplex virus, human herpesevirus-6 (HHV6), varicella zoster virus, and human herpesvirus-8 were serially assayed in saliva and serum samples from 27 transplanted patients, during 32 weeks after the graft.
68 patients divided into 2 groups were studied, one that received VIMANG during 6 months and another that was administered placebo. Titers of anti-p24 antibodies and concentration of antigen p24 were measured at 0 and 6 months. The differences found in the behavior of the titers of the antibodies between both groups were not significant, although the TPG were maintained in the group receiving VIMANG.
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