COVID-19 mortality among solid organ transplant recipients and candidates before specific vaccine availability in Colombia.

Introduction: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a life-threatening disease that was declared a pandemic in March 2020. Organ transplant recipients are vulnerable to infection and complications from COVID-19. The objective of this study was to investigate the rates of infection, mortality, and case-fatality ratios (CFR) in solid organ transplant recipients and patients on the waiting list for organ allocation in the period prior to the availability of specific vaccines.

Ten years of the immunogenetics laboratory performance assessment programme and its impact on the donor and transplant network.

Introduction. The use of immunological tests before solid organ transplantation is essential to reduce the risk of rejection and post-transplant complications. Therefore, quality control systems in laboratories performing them are necessary for clinical practice.

[Stability of mortality from thyroid cancer in a developing country].

Objective: To establish characteristics and the trend of mortality from thyroid cancer in Colombia.

Material And Methods: This is a study of mortality from thyroid cancer in Colombia using official national mortality databases (1998-2010). Year of death, sex, age and department of residence were analyzed.

Approach to prediagnostic clinical semiology, noticed by mothers, of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Introduction: Recognizing early symptoms of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) may help to make an early diagnosis. The objective of this study is to identify clinical manifestations preceding the diagnosis of childhood ALL from the maternal perspective and to establish the time elapsed from the first manifestation to the diagnosis.

Case Study: Six hospitals located in Bogotá and Bucaramanga (Colombia) participated.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia in a 2-year-old girl whose mother was previously diagnosed with antiphospholipid syndrome: a case report.

Background: The role of maternal exposures and conditions in the origin of childhood cancer has been a subject of growing interest, but current evidence is inconclusive.

Case Presentation: We present a case detected in a multicenter case-control study evaluating the association between parental risk factors and childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The patient is a Colombian girl who was diagnosed with ALL-L1 when she was 2 years old.

Parental exposure to carcinogens and risk for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia, Colombia, 2000-2005.

Introduction: The objective of this study was to determine the risk factors for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and, in particular, the role of parental occupational exposure to carcinogenic and probably carcinogenic hydrocarbons before the child's conception.

Methods: For this case-control study, cases were children younger than 15 years who were newly diagnosed with ALL between January 2000 and March 2005 at 1 of 6 Colombian hospitals. An interview with both parents of 170 children (85 cases and 85 individually matched neighborhood controls) gathered information about each child's exposures and parental demographic and occupational characteristics, medical history, health risk behaviors, and pregnancy and birth history.

The situation room: a step by step procedure toward pandemic influenza preparedness.

In the context of the public health surveillance, the situation room might be playing an interesting role as a strategy for early alert and follow-up of a specific public health event and its determinants. The implementation and proper functioning of an influenza situation room monitoring seasonal and pandemic influenza or any other public health event could help to mitigate the impact of the next pandemic on public health in any country regardless of its level of economic development. This paper is aimed to suggest some basic steps for implementing an Influenza Situation Room as a strategy of prevention of diseases with potential to cause human pandemics and its mitigation if it has already occurred.

[Use and determinants of Pap smear in a rural Colombian municipality 1998-1999].

Objectives: Determining the prevalence of Pap smear use and identifying the factors associated with Pap test performance.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out on volunteer women recruited from a local programme for detecting cervical cancer in Mogotes, Colombia. Prevalence ratios (PR) were calculated.