Population In Cuba Research Articles

IgG Subclass and the FcG Receptor Iia Polymorphism Associate to Dengue Fever, Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever and Asymptomatic Dengue Infection in Cuba

Background: FcG Receptors II (FcGRII) mediate a variety of biological response, including Antibodies Dependent Enhancement (ADE). The ADE theory shows that the presence of circulating dengue-specific IgG antibodies can enhance the viral entry trough FcGR and constitutes the largest risk factor for the individuals to develop of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fiver (DHF). An Arginine (R) to Histidine (H) substitution at position 131 of the FcGRIIa gene change the IgG binding affinity of the receptor with reduced opsonization of IgG2 associated with the arginine variant. The exceptional epidemiological circumstances in Cuba allow us to maintain a homogeneous sample with a similar history of natural dengue virus infections. In this work we investigate whether homozygosity for the arginine variant might be associated with a reduced risk of DHF caused by ADE and the subclass of IgG in the acute serum samples from individuals who suffered secondary infection to dengue 2 virus in the epidemic of Santiago de Cuba in 1997 with different clinical pictures. Methods: The Subclass of IgG were detected using Dot Blot in the soluble fraction and the immunocomplex fraction of the dengue acute serum samples kinetically collected. The DNA samples were studied to determine the polymorphism associated to Fc gamma receptor IIa. The FcGRIIa genotypes (R/R131, H/H131 and R/H131) and allelic frequencies were compared. Results: IgG1 are the predominant IgG subclass during the dengue acute infection even as a part of the immunocomplex or free in the serum. On the other hand IgG3 levels, only detected in the immunocomplex fraction, were observed in DF cases. The distribution of FcGRIIa genotype frequencies in Santiago de Cuba population showed the predominant RH genotype and the homozygocity for arginine variant did not found any protective effect associate to dengue infection in our population. Conclusion: The IgG subclass involved in dengue infection are IgG1 and IgG3 and the ADE phenomenon probably take place by the FcGRIIIa and FcGRIIIb associate with these IgG.

Comparative Policy Brief: Status of Intellectual Disabilities in the Republic of Cuba

Abstract It is estimated that 3.2% of Cuba's population of 11.4 million persons has a severe disability of some kind. Recent economic difficulties have, it may be assumed, had a negative impact on health service provision – which is free to all – and thus, on population health outcomes and nutritional levels. There is a traditional culture of family care for children and adults with intellectual disabilities (IDs), although it is apparent that unfounded beliefs about the etiology of disabling conditions as well as social stigma persist. The Constitution indicates that it is necessary to provide education for children with intellectual and other disabilities in primary schools, while other ministerial resolutions create special schools. ID is construed chiefly as a social problem. Children with IDs are the responsibility of the Minister of Education; it is possible that children with severe levels of disability may not attend school and rely on family support. For adults, rehabilitation includes physiotherapy and other services such as “defectology”; strategies for adults who are evaluated include both segregated and institutional elements. The author suggests that two key issues are related to policy and practice in Cuba. One is the minimal content on special education in teacher preparation programs, and the other, that despite a cultural tradition of family care, family involvement in special education, or in rehabilitative services, remains limited.

Health, politics, and revolution in Cuba since 1898

Challenging many of the assumptions scholars have made about the Cuban Revolution's impact on healthcare, this volume recounts one anthropologist's quest to discover the truth behind the complicated relationship between Cuba's revolution, politics, and healthcare system. Katherine Hirschfeld became interested in Cuba in the mid- 1990s, after reading numerous laudatory books and articles describing the Castro regime's achievements in health and medicine. Cuba's population health indicators seemed to be far superior to those of neighboring countries, the national health costs low, and medical care free at point-of service to the entire people. Historical records indicated that most of these positive health trends resulted from the changes instituted by Castro in 1959. Few of these authors, however, had actually spent time on the island. Thus, Hirschfeld found that academic writing on Cuba was often long on praise, but short on empirical research about what exactly had changed in Cuban medicine since 1959. After much bureaucratic wrangling, Hirschfeld managed to secure permission to conduct long-term ethnographic research in Cuba, where she lived with families from Havana and Santiago, conducted clinic observations, interviewed doctors and patients, and was treated in a Cuban hospital during an epidemic of dengue fever. The reality of the Cuban healthcare system turned out to be different than the scholarly ideal: it was bureaucratized, authoritarian, and repressive, and most people preferred to seek healthcare in the informal economy rather than endure the material shortages, red tape, and political surveillance of the public sector. Written in the form of a first-person narrative, Health, Politics, and Revolution in Cuba Since 1898 not only critically reevaluates Cuban healthcare after the 1959 revolution; it also includes chapters detailing Cuban health trends from the Spanish-American War (1898) through the fall of Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and into the present.

Sarita and the Revolution: Race and Cuban Cinema

In recent years, Cuban cinema has received increasing scholarly attention and, quite deservedly, accolades for decades of politically committed and stylistically innovative filmmaking as part of a committed project to undertake a 'decoloniza tion of the screens' (Chanan 1985, 275). This essay explores questions of race and ethnicity in relation to Cuban cinema during the height of the Revolution, focusing in particular on one filmmaker, the late Sara Gomez. In this essay, I argue that while contemporary filmmakers in Cuba have benefited from a growing acceptance of African heritage as an integral component of Cuban culture, Sara Gomez's in terest in exploring matters of racial inequalities in the Revolutionary Cuba of the 1960s and '70s forced her to negotiate a rather challenging political and social mi lieu in which official attitudes frowned upon the acknowledgement of racial dis crimination as a contemporary phenomenon. For many years, Cuba was the only Caribbean country with any kind of motion picture output of note. In fact, Cuba today has an established history of indigenous film production, resulting from the Castro government's active support of Lenin's notion of film as the 'most important art'. The Castro government set up the infra structure for the construction of a film industry to serve the needs of a Revolution ary Cuba in March 1959, less than three months after it came to power, by estab lishing the Instituto Cubano de Arte e Industria Cinematogrdficos (ICAIC), often referred to (in English) as the Cuban Film Institute. Over the next fifteen years, Cuban cinema produced a respected corpus of fea ture films, documentaries and shorts. Under the supervision of the ICAIC, Cuban cinema developed an aesthetic identity very much attuned to, and aligned with, the political and ideological developments of the early Revolutionary period. This in cluded the 'Imperfect Cinema' aesthetic, as espoused by Cuban filmmaker, Julio Garcia Espinosa, which argued against the dangers of attempting to imitate the elaborate production values of the First World's mainstream cinemas at the ex pense of content. The precise ethnic make-up of Cuba's 11 million population is uncertain, with sources varying considerably in their estimations, most indicating Cuba's popula tion as being predominantly (51 per cent) mixed race (black/white), but some showing it as predominantly white. Blacks are estimated to comprise 11 or 12 per cent.1 On the other hand, in 1990, 84 per cent of Cubans living in the United States classified themselves as 'white' (de la Fuenta 1995, 144). Whatever the precise demographics, there appears to be a consensus that Cuba is not a 'white' society. Scholars such as Lourdes Casal have argued that Cuban 'culture is [...] undoubtedly Afro-Hispanic', noting the influence of African and black cultural elements in Cuban music, proverbs and sayings, religion, poetry and

Spinocerebellar ataxia type 2: polyQ repeat variation in the CACNA1A calcium channel modifies age of onset

Nine neurodegenerative diseases, collectively referred to as polyglutamine (polyQ) diseases, are caused by expansion of a coding CAG DNA trinucleotide repeat. PolyQ diseases show a strong inverse correlation between CAG repeat length and age of disease onset (AO). Despite this, individuals with identical repeat expansion alleles can have highly variable disease onset indicating that other factors also influence AO. We examined AO in 148 individuals in 57 sibships from the SCA2 founder population in Cuba. The mutant CAG repeat allele explained 57% of AO variance. To estimate heritability of the residual variance after correction for SCA2 repeat length, we applied variance component analysis and determined the coefficient of intraclass correlation. We found that 55% of the residual AO variance was familial. To test candidate modifier alleles in this population, we selected 64 unrelated individuals from a set of 394 individuals who were highly discordant for AO after correction for SCA2 CAG repeat length. We hypothesized that long normal alleles in the other 8 polyQ disease genes were associated with premature disease onset in SCA2. Of the 8 genes tested, only long normal CAG repeats in the CACNA1A gene were associated with disease onset earlier than expected based on SCA2 CAG repeat size using non-parametric tests for alleles (P < 0.04) and genotypes (P < 0.023) after correction for multiple comparisons. CACNA1A variation explained 5.8% of the residual variation in AO. The CACNA1A calcium channel subunit represents an excellent candidate as a modifier of disease in SCA2. It is highly expressed in Purkinje cells (PCs) and is essential for the generation of the P/Q current and the complex spike in PCs. In contrast to other polyQ proteins, which are nuclear, the CACNA1A and SCA2 proteins are both cytoplasmic. Furthermore, small pathologic expansions of the polyQ domain in the CACNA1A protein lead to PC degeneration in SCA6. Future studies are needed to determine whether the modifier effect of CACNA1A relates to neuronal dysfunction or cell death of Purkinje neurons.

Yoruba Vestiges in Nancy Morejon's Poetry

Nancy Morejon cannot escape the African Nancy Morejon. Given the rich and complex history of blacks in Cuba, Morejon inherits a wealth of stories, words, images, rhythms, and sounds—all tracing waves back to Africa. My intention in this essay is to bring forward manifestations of Yoruba vestiges in Morejon's poetry after presenting a brief scenario of the Afro-Cuban presence in Cuba, specifically focused on the participation of blacks in struggles for independence during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Although it is true that Morejon fights all labels placed on her other than Cuban poet, she does write black and feminist poems. Her enigmatic and liberating approach to these sensitive issues makes her poetry a wonderful blend of many other categories as well. She writes above all from her poetic soul, not from a political or racial stance. Her poetry springs up from within and includes both her position in history as witness and active participant in the Revolution, as well as her racial identity as a black Cuban. These two themes are essential to her poetry. This paper will focus only on the religious aspect of her African self and how the poetry is charged with multiple layers of meanings. For example, a line such as put this African feather in your hair overlooks the real meaning of an African feather placed on someone's head. 1 To better understand blacks and why Morejon uses hidden traces in reference to her black imaginary identity, a brief history of the African/black pres- ence in Cuba is in order. In 1791, during the first victory in the Haitian Revolution, whites, who had come to Cuba during the Spanish quest for gold, outnumbered blacks in the mainland territories and in the small enclaves where white cattle ranchers had settled over huge expanses of land. ratio of whites to blacks changed when white landowners and their slaves fled Hispaniola for Cuba and helped transform Cuba into the biggest producer of sugar for Europe. Since sugar production necessitated masses of laborers, the trafficking of Africans intensified until slavery was abolished in 1886. By 1810 the nonwhite population of Cuba exceeded the white population. In fact, the slave population increased seven times between 1792 and 1841, while the number of free colored inhabitants tripled (Fernandez Robaina 57). Many have proclaimed the absence of racial identity in Cuba in official documents, speeches and history books. nineteenth-century struggles for independence, in which blacks and whites fought side by side, may confirm such affirmations. The experience of war had united forever black and white and had converted both into

Seroprevalence of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus in various populations in Cuba.

Little is known about the prevalence and distribution of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) infection in the Caribbean. The aim of this study was to determine rates of KSHV seropositivity in various populations in Cuba. During the years 1998 to 2002 we screened serum samples from 410 subjects in Cuba. Serologic screening for KSHV antibodies was a two-step process using (1) indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) specifically reactive to the KSHV latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA) encoded by open reading frame 73 (ORF73), and (2) confirmatory immunoblot using recombinant KSHV ORF65.2, a lytically expressed, 20-kilodalton protein as the target antigen. Five different populations were studied: (1) 45 AIDS patients with Kaposi's sarcoma (AIDS-KS), (2) 154 HIV-1-infected patients without clinical evidence of KS, (3) 171 HIV-negative blood donors, (4) 27 consecutive kidney transplant recipients, who were HIV-negative, and (5) 13 contacts (sexual contacts or relatives) of the AIDS-KS-affected patients. Among the 45 AIDS-KS subjects, 35 of them (77.8%) were KSHV-seropositive. Thirty-two of the 154 HIV-positive patients without KS (20.8% of them) were KSHV-seropositive, and 6 of the 13 contacts of KS-affected patients (46.2% of them) were infected with KSHV. In contrast to other researchers, we did not find in the populations that we studied in Cuba that KSHV seropositivity was associated with male homosexual or bisexual activity. We found high KSHV seropositivity rates among women reporting sexual contact with bisexual men and among men who had acquired an HIV infection in Africa. There were low rates of KSHV infection among the blood donors (1.2%) and the renal transplant recipients (0.0%). The low rates of KSHV infection that we found among the non-HIV-infected populations in Cuba are similar to patterns found in populations in Europe and in the United States. Together with similar results from Brazil, Jamaica, and the United States of America, our results suggest that KSHV infection is uncommon in some populations in the Western Hemisphere and that KSHV is largely confined to patients with AIDS-associated KS.

On HIV genetic diversity in Cuba

Cuevas et al. [1], in their article ‘High HIV-1 genetic diversity in Cuba', published in AIDS in August 2002, without the approval of the Cuban authors, made several affirmations and inferences that should be commented upon. They reported that the results were a reflection of what really occurs in the HIV/AIDS population in Cuba; however, they did not take into account that the sample under study was a convenience sampling that was taken to represent different modalities of therapy in the country, and to include in a deliberate way, individuals with known non-B subtype for resistance behaviour observation when therapy was applied, which has previously been analysed but was not included in the discussion of the report. Most of the non-B subtype individuals included had already been detected in previous studies by heteroduplex mobility assay, a technique used in Cuba since 1997 as a tool for the surveillance of circulating forms. Such studies, performed out of the convenience sampling representative of the HIV-1 population in Cuba, showed a predominance of subtype B (70%), whereas a lower rate of subtypes A and C were also found (12.9 and 17.1%, respectively) [2]. Recent studies performed by heteroduplex mobility assay env/gag have demonstrated the circulation of new subtypes and recombinant forms for the env/gag genes, but in smaller proportions if compared with subtype B, which continues to prevail in the country [3]. The report of Cuevas et al. [1] was based on a survey carried out during 1999 on 105 HIV-infected individuals, representing 3.2% of the seropositive population detected in the country up to 31 December 2000 [4]. Although the quantity of individuals enrolled in the study could be acceptable with respect to the HIV/AIDS-infected population in Cuba, we insist that the sample was not taken at random. This aspect was previously pointed out by a referee of the Pan American Journal of Public Health in another publication, derived from the data on resistance mutations obtained from a study conducted on the same sample [5]. We also disagree, because of the lack of a scientific basis, that the appearance of new circulating recombinant forms (CRF) constitute a threat to other countries in the region. The results obtained from that study arose from the characteristics of the sample, which mostly included individuals who had been diagnosed more than 3 years earlier, indulged in high-risk sexual behaviour, lacked adherence to the antiretroviral regime indicated, and even included some cases of therapeutic failure, all of which are factors that enable the appearance of new CRF that are not present in other HIV-infected individuals in our country. Similar studies have not been performed in other countries of the Caribbean region, and those carried out in the rest of the continent probably do not reflect their real situation. HIV-1 genetic diversity in our region has not been widely studied, which is why we could not say for certain that this result has no parallel in the Americas, let alone that it is comparable with results found in central Africa. The introduction of recombinant forms into Cuba cannot be explained only by the presence of Cuban personnel in Africa, because the number of Cubans who were infected in that continent is low. As at December 2000, 178 cases of Cubans who had been infected in Africa had been registered, representing 5.25% of the 3230 HIV-seropositive individuals reported up to that date [4]. To consider the non-B HIV/AIDS Cuban patients to be a threat to tourists travelling to Cuba from western Europe is a mistake, taking into consideration the low prevalence of HIV infection among the Cuban population, and also as samples from prostitutes were not included in the study. The Cuban authors involved in the investigation that originated the article agreed that there was no correspondence between the interpretation of the results and the epidemiological characteristics of the HIV/AIDS infection in Cuba. The findings of new subtypes and CRF in the sample are not representative of the HIV/AIDS Cuban population.

Response to ‘On HIV-1 genetic diversity in Cuba’ by Ruibal et al.

Response to ‘On HIV-1 genetic diversity in Cuba’ by Ruibal et al.

Coat Gene Profiles of Several Cat Populations in Cuba, Costa Rica, Colombia, Paraguay, Chile and Argentina, and Possible Genetic Origins of These Cat Populations

Until the present moment, only a scarce number of Latin American domestic cat populations have been studied from a population genetic standpoint. For this reason, the cat populations of La Havana (Cuba), San Jose (Costa Rica), Bogota and Ibague (Colombia), Asuncion (Paraguay), Santiago (Chile) and Buenos Aires (Argentina) were sampled for several coat genes. The results obtained were as follows: (1) there was a strong genetic resemblence between several Hispanic American cat populations (especially, those of Buenos Aires, San Jose and the two Colombian populations studied) and those from South Western United States (California, Texas and Colorado), which adds suport to the suspicion that these populations probably have a common origin; (2) The cat population of Santiago (Chile), contrarily to the other Hispanic American populations studied, showed a strong genetic resemblance with some Anglo North American populations; and (3) The I (long hair) and d(dilution) alleles showed systematic higher frequencies in the Hispanic American populations than those observed in Spain. Although the Hispanic American populations were not identical to the current Spanish populations (with the exception of Asuncion), this historic genetic experiment was very different to that found for the British populations and their overseas colonies.

La cirugía de los aneurismas intracraneales en la séptima y octava décadas de la vida

Elderly patients are a growing population group in developing countries because of optimal health care. 13% of Cuba population is older than sixty years and it is expected to grow to 20% in 2005. Subarachnoid hemorrhage secondary to ruptured aneurysms in geriatric patients carries a high mortality but a few patients are selected for surgical treatment. Manuel Ascunce Domenech Hospital attended 1112 patients older than 60 years between January 1994 and December 2001. Of these there were 96 patients with symptomatic intracranial aneurysms and we selected 30 for surgical treatment. They were all in clinical grades I and II of the WFNS scale. They had good health to face surgery and familiar consent. The size and location of the aneurysms were not considered among the exclusion criteria. Aneurysms were mainly localized at posterior communicating and middle cerebral arteries. There were two deaths, one due to a medical cause an the other to the surgical procedure. 74% of the patients obtained satisfactory outcome six month after the operation. The clue is to not consider age as a negative point for surgery. Surgical procedures can be performed in patients with good clinical grade (WFNS). New technical advances, stroke units, accurately selected patients and minimal invasive surgical methods will help to obtain good results.

On the recent sharp increase in HIV detections in Cuba

Contact tracing has been debated as a control measure for HIV/AIDS ever since the emergence of the global HIV pandemic. In Cuba the Partner National Notification Programme has been tracing sexual contacts of known HIV-seropositive individuals since 1986. Data in 1996 have shown an increase in the number of HIV-positive contacts. To see whether this sharp increase indicates an actual increase in the HIV-positive population the number of HIV-infected individuals infected through sexual contact was estimated using the HIV seroprevalence data of the Partner Notification Programme as a seroprevalence result from a random sampling of the sexually active population in Cuba. Overall results show that in agreement with the seroprevalence data there is an increase in the number of HIV-positive individuals in the country since 1996. However the increase is consistent with the previous increase in the first half of the decade.

Frequency of mammarian disturbances in infantile and juvenile population in Cuba: Three years of experience

International Journal of Gynecology & ObstetricsVolume 70, Issue S1 p. A130-A130 Pediatric and adolescent gynecology Frequency of mammarian disturbances in infantile and juvenile population in Cuba: Three years of experience J. Peláez, J. PeláezSearch for more papers by this authorO. Rodríguez, O. RodríguezSearch for more papers by this authorO.R. Bermúdez, O.R. BermúdezSearch for more papers by this author J. Peláez, J. PeláezSearch for more papers by this authorO. Rodríguez, O. RodríguezSearch for more papers by this authorO.R. Bermúdez, O.R. BermúdezSearch for more papers by this author First published: 10 December 2003 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0020-7292(00)83434-7AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport 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. Volume70, IssueS12000Pages A130-A130 RelatedInformation

Desigualdad y racismo. Demografía y sociedad en Cuba a fines de la época colonial

The author discusses the demographic structure and nature of Cuban society in the late 19th-century on the basis of the census of 1899. He argues that the strongly marked social differentiation in Cuba at the time, the duality in its social order of whites v. blacks, was grounded in the prevailing economic structure of the island and ultimately in the plantation economy. This situation conditioned the integration of the black population in Cuba's civil society in the first years of the new republic.

The population of Cuba: The growth and characteristics of its labor force

Cuba is a country with a demographic profile that resembles the situation of more developed nations: birth and death rates are low, life expectancy is high, the proportion of the population in working ages is also high, and the number of elderly persons is expanding rapidly. Cuba also has an educated population and a universal public education system. This paper analyzes Cuba's current demographic picture, and emphasizes the characteristics of its labor force that will influence dynamic change. Overall, the contribution of the labor force to the development of a market economy is likely to be positive, given its low dependency ratio, the high level of education, and the value placed on entrepreneurship.

AIDS, public health, and human rights in Cuba

Only Cuba has met the problem of AIDS with a traditional public health approach, which includes routine testing, contact tracing, partner notification, close medical surveillance, and partial isolation of infected individuals. The social behavior of Cubans (an absence of iv drug use, hostility toward homosexuals, and sexual puritanism) as well as access to abortion have contributed to the low incidence of the disease. Puerto Rico, with one-third the population of Cuba, has more than 8000 cases of AIDS, whereas Cuba has 927 cases of HIV seropositivity (as of May 31, 1993) and 187 cases of AIDS. Cuba acted promptly and decisively to control the epidemic, banning the importation of blood products in 1983 and administering the first of 12 million HIV tests in 1985. Whereas health screening is a familiar activity for Cubans, the isolation of HIV seropositive individuals in the Santiago fe las Vegas sanatorium was new. What began as a military-style hospital for HIV-infected soldiers returning from Africa was quickly transformed into a community which grants "leaves" to trustworthy residents who have completed a 6-month probationary period. Residents receive their old salaries whether or not they are working and are offered a choice of treatment regimens. As of July 1993, trustworthy residents can return home to live. If Cuba could have contained AIDS through a public educational campaign (and it has the infrastructure to have done so), then the human rights of the confined individuals were violated beyond restitution. International criticism of Cuba centers on this and largely ignores the equally troubling fact that abortions are universally recommended in HIV-positive women. In the parts of the world where AIDS has been regarded as primarily a human rights challenge instead of a public health crisis and preventive actions were dictated by a fear of further stigmatizing certain groups, personal freedoms have been protected, but many lives have been lost.

AIDS, Public Health and Human Rights in Cuba

Only Cuba has met the problem of AIDS with a traditional public health approach which includes routine testing contact tracing partner notification close medical surveillance and partial isolation of infected individuals. The social behavior of Cubans (an absence of iv drug use hostility toward homosexuals and sexual puritanism) as well as access to abortion have contributed to the low incidence of the disease. Puerto Rico with one-third the population of Cuba has more than 8000 cases of AIDS whereas Cuba has 927 cases of HIV seropositivity (as of May 31 1993) and 187 cases of AIDS. Cuba acted promptly and decisively to control the epidemic banning the importation of blood products in 1983 and administering the first of 12 million HIV tests in 1985. Whereas health screening is a familiar activity for Cubans the isolation of HIV seropositive individuals in the Santiago fe las Vegas sanatorium was new. What began as a military-style hospital for HIV-infected soldiers returning from Africa was quickly transformed into a community which grants leaves to trustworthy residents who have completed a 6-month probationary period. Residents receive their old salaries whether or not they are working and are offered a choice of treatment regimens. As of July 1993 trustworthy residents can return home to live. If Cuba could have contained AIDS through a public educational campaign (and it has the infrastructure to have done so) then the human rights of the confined individuals were violated beyond restitution. International criticism of Cuba centers on this and largely ignores the equally troubling fact that abortions are universally recommended in HIV-positive women. In the parts of the world where AIDS has been regarded as primarily a human rights challenge instead of a public health crisis and preventive actions were dictated by a fear of further stigmatizing certain groups personal freedoms have been protected but many lives have been lost.

Chinese Plantation Workers and Social Conflict in Peru in the late Nineteenth Century

As the world capitalist system developed during the nineteenth century non-slave labour became a commodity that circulated around the globe and contributed to capital accumulation in metropolitan centres. The best examples are the emigration of millions of Asian indentured servants and European labourers to areas of European colonisation. Asians replaced emancipated African slaves on plantations in the Caribbean and South America, supplemented a declining slave population in Cuba, built railways in California, worked in mines in South Africa, laboured on sugarcane plantations in Mauritius and Fiji, and served on plantations in southeast Asia. Italian immigrants also replaced African slaves on coffee estates in Brazil, worked with Spaniards in the seasonal wheat harvest in Argentina, and, along with other Europeans, entered the growing labour market in the United States. From the perspective of capital, these workers were a cheap alternative to local wage labour and, as foreigners without the rights of citizens, they could be subjected to harsher methods of social control.1

Role of recessive lethal genes in spontaneous embryonic mortality in noninbred mouse and rat populations in Cuba

Role of recessive lethal genes in spontaneous embryonic mortality in noninbred mouse and rat populations in Cuba

Liver storage iron in normal population of Cuba

One hundred sixty-one liver specimens from subjects who died acute traumatic deaths were studied. Of these, 127 came from male subjects and 34 from female subjects. The liver storage iron values of subjects in the persent study dying acutely from traumas and the differences found are in agreement with those expected according to the iron physiological needs and the prevalence of anemia reported by this cause in the world. This substantiates that the study of nonheme iron contents in subjects who died acute traumatic deaths is a good method for assessing iron nutritional status in a population. It is interesting to note the significant increase of hepatic storage iron found in men 61 to 70 years old, although it would be important to increase the number of cases to obtain more representative data. Liver storage iron in the Cuban population is not essentially different from that reported in the United States, Sweden, and Australia and the deficiency percentage is one of the lowest in Latin America.