Publications by authors named "Luis Alcantara"

: Yellow fever outbreaks have re-emerged in Brazil during 2016-18, with mortality rates up to 30%. Although urban transmission has not been reported since 1942, the risk of re-urbanization of yellow fever is significant, as is present in most tropical and sub-tropical cities in the World and still remains the main vector of urban YFV. Although the YFV vaccine is safe and effective, it does not always reach populations at greatest risk of infection and there is an acknowledged global shortage of vaccine supply.

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Background: Medical missions to low and middle-income countries are increasingly frequent, with an estimated 6,000 trips sponsored by U.S. organizations accounting for approximately 200,000 surgical cases and $250 million in costs annually.

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Background: In response to the growing burden of joint disease, developing countries are starting to create their own total joint arthroplasty (TJA) programs. To date, there has been limited research on predictors of TJA outcomes in a developing country. This investigation uses patient-reported outcome measures collected by a medical mission to assess predictors of TJA outcomes in the Dominican Republic.

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Background: To address both the growing burden of joint disease and the gaps in medical access in developing nations, medical relief organizations have begun to launch programs to perform total joint replacement (TJR) on resident populations in developing countries. One outcome of TJR of particular interest is physical activity (PA) since it is strongly linked to general health. This study evaluates the amount of postoperative participation in PA in low-income patients who received total joint replacement in the Dominican Republic and identifies preoperative predictors of postoperative PA level.

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Background: Several organizations seek to address the growing burden of arthritis in developing countries by providing total joint replacements (TJR) to patients with advanced arthritis who otherwise would not have access to these procedures. Because these mission trips operate in resource poor environments, some of the features typically associated with high quality care may be difficult to implement. In the U.

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Objective: In developed countries, the functional status scores of patients with poor preoperative scores undergoing total joint replacement (TJR) improve more following TJR than those for patients with better preoperative scores. However, those with better preoperative scores achieve the best postoperative functional outcomes. We determined whether similar associations exist in a developing country.

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