AIDS In Cuba Research Articles

CRF19_cpx is an Evolutionary fit HIV-1 Variant Strongly Associated With Rapid Progression to AIDS in Cuba

BackgroundClinicians reported an increasing trend of rapid progression (RP) (AIDS within 3years of infection) in Cuba. MethodsRecently infected patients were prospectively sampled, 52 RP at AIDS diagnosis (AIDS-RP) and 21 without AIDS in the same time frame (non-AIDS). 22 patients were sampled at AIDS diagnosis (chronic-AIDS) retrospectively assessed as >3years infected. Clinical, demographic, virological, epidemiological and immunological data were collected. Pol and env sequences were used for subtyping, transmission cluster analysis, and prediction of resistance, co-receptor use and evolutionary fitness. Host, immunological and viral predictors of RP were explored through data mining. FindingsSubtyping revealed 26 subtype B strains, 6 C, 6 CRF18_cpx, 9 CRF19_cpx, 29 BG-recombinants and other subtypes/URFs. All patients infected with CRF19 belonged to the AIDS-RP group. Data mining identified CRF19, oral candidiasis and RANTES levels as the strongest predictors of AIDS-RP. CRF19 was more frequently predicted to use the CXCR4 co-receptor, had higher fitness scores in the protease region, and patients had higher viral load at diagnosis. InterpretationCRF19 is a recombinant of subtype D (C-part of Gag, PR, RT and nef), subtype A (N-part of Gag, Integrase, Env) and subtype G (Vif, Vpr, Vpu and C-part of Env). Since subtypes D and A have been associated with respectively faster and slower disease progression, our findings might indicate a fit PR driving high viral load, which in combination with co-infections may boost RANTES levels and thus CXCR4 use, potentially explaining the fast progression. We propose that CRF19 is evolutionary very fit and causing rapid progression to AIDS in many newly infected patients in Cuba.

Coinfección por Mycobacterium malmoense y Mycobacterium tuberculosis en paciente con el síndrome de inmunodeficiencia humana

A case is presented of coinfection with Mycobacterium malmoense and Mycobacterium tuberculosis in a Cuban patient with AIDS which produced respiratory and liver disease respectively. Cultures done from sputum samples showed the presence of a non-pigmented, slow growing mycobacterial strain belonging to Runyon group III and identified as Mycobacterium malmoense. From cultures of liver tissue removed laparoscopically, a strain was isolated and subsequently identified as Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Anatomapathologic examination confirmed the diagnosis of tuberculosis, the patient received specific treatment and had a favorable clinical course. This report of a rare case of coinfection of Mycobacterium describes the first report of hepatic tuberculosis in a patient with AIDS in Cuba.

Didactics of the use of ICT and traditional teaching aids in municipal higher education institutions.

Abstract Issues related to the use of teaching aids in Higher Education are currently going through constant revision and rethinking due to the rapid advancement of science and technology. Their uses have significantly changed after the introduction of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) within the educational field. One of the main tasks to be performed by didactics in Higher Education teaching today is precisely to deepen into rational and effective class-teaching means, understood in a broad sense: from traditional teaching aids to ICTs. This reality has materialized in the current blended learning model which characterizes the New Cuban University. Therefore, it was considered appropriate to characterize the present-day teaching practice, based on the use of teaching aids in Cuba’s university classrooms, as part of the second stage within the research project “Improvement of the universalization process in Municipal Higher Education Institutions in the Havana province. Generalization of results and development of contextualized innovative experiences.” The study was carried out at eleven ‘Physical Culture’ Municipal Higher Education Institutions (MHEIs) in two academic periods (2007–2009 and 2009–2011). A descriptive methodology consisting of observation, surveys and the “Osgood Semantic Differential” scale as main methods and techniques was applied. The results obtained showed that teachers make an occasional, nonsystematic and reluctant use of teaching aids during the teachinglearning process, especially when it comes to ICT-based teaching aids.

The Human Dimension of AIDS in Cuba: Jorge Pérez MD MS, Director, Pedro Kourí Tropical Medicine Institute

Except for the people living with the disease no others have so immersed themselves in world of HIV/AIDS as Dr Jorge Perez. It is a world of Cuban returnees from Angolas war against apartheid South Africa gay and bisexual men housewives transactional sex workers rebellious teenagers and infected surgeons and scientists-a cultural kaleidoscope reflecting all the faces of AIDS. To more than one international author he is simply Cubas AIDS doctor. Speaking to his patients at the Pedro Kouri Tropical Medicine Institute in Havana it is easy to see why but also to appreciate the courage compassion and persistent search for new knowledge that characterize the Institutes staff as a whole. Dr Perezs story-now told in two books based on his diaries-is not his alone. MEDICC Review held two interview sessions with Jorge Perez just days apart at the beginning of April: one before and one after his designation as the new Director of the Tropical Medicine Institute where he previously served as Deputy Director and Chief of Hospital Services. More than strictly medical matters the conversation turned to the human dimension of HIV/AIDS the depth to which it has touched many directly and affected Cuban society as a whole and the challenges ahead for flagship institution for research and treatment of infectious diseases.

HIV/AIDS in Cuba: a model for care or an ethical dilemma?

HIV/AIDS in Cuba: a model for care or an ethical dilemma?

Comprehensive care and the sanatoria: Cuba's response to HIV/AIDS

The authors present an overview of Cuba's response to HIV/AIDS including: (a) the development of comprehensive health care in Cuba; (b) the epidemiology of AIDS in Cuba; (c) the sanatoria approach to treatment and recent changes; (d) the idea of comprehensive HIV/AIDS care as a basic human right; (e) the effects of the special period on the HIV/AIDS program and containment of the epidemic; and (f) a critique of Cuba's HIV/AIDS program.

AIDS in Cuba

Anthropology NewsVolume 35, Issue 1 p. 2-2 AIDS in Cuba Susan McCombie, Susan McCombie Philadelphia, PASearch for more papers by this author Susan McCombie, Susan McCombie Philadelphia, PASearch for more papers by this author First published: January 1994 https://doi.org/10.1111/an.1994.35.1.2.1AboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume35, Issue1January 1994Pages 2-2 RelatedInformation

AIDS in Cuba: Rights of the Uninfected

AIDS in Cuba: Rights of the Uninfected

Solidarity and AIDS: Introduction

Perhaps more than any other disease in recent history, AIDS has taught a cruel and crucial lesson: the constraints on our response to this epidemic are as deep as our denial, as entrenched as the inequities that permeate our society, as circumscribed as our knowledge, and as unlimited as our compassion and our commitment to human rights. Elaborating on these themes, the final three articles in this Special Section on AIDS consider three widely divergent yet intimately connected topics: AIDS in Cuba, AIDS in Brazil, and global AIDS prevention in the 1990s. Together, they caution that if we persist in treating AIDS as a problem only of "others," no country will be spared the social and economic devastation that promises to be the cost of our contempt and our folly. Solidarity is not an option; it is a necessity. Without conscious recognition of the worldwide relationship between health, human rights, and social inequalities, our attempts to abate the spread of AIDS--and to ease the suffering that follows in its wake--most surely will fall short of our goals. Finally, as we mourn our dead, we must take to heart the words of Mother Jones, and "fight like hell for living." This is the politics of survival.