Rural Central America Research Articles

Population and nutrition; implications of sociodemographic trends and differentials for food and nutrition policy in Central America and Panama.

This paper looks into some of the sociodemographic trends and differentials that may be influencing the lack of improvement in the food and nutrition situation in rural Central America. Evidence is presented that indicates that it is more difficult to reduce malnutrition and fertility than it was to reduce infant and child mortality initially. When sociostructural changes are not forthcoming after the initiation of the mortality decline, then resultant population growth, distribution and composition dynamics can hinder improvement in nutrition. In particular, changes in the social composition differentials as a result of selectivity in mortality, fertility and migration have apparently contributed to the increasing nutrition gap between the well-fed and the poorly-fed classes.

Ecological Associations of Vesicular Stomatitis Virus in Rural Central America and Panama *

The principal objective of this study was to determine ecological associations of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV)- New Jersey and VSV-Indiana in rural Central America and Panama. Two types of information were linked: the results of neutralizing antibody tests performed on sera from 3,232 lifetime residents of 189 rural study communitities of Central America and Panama, and ecological characteristics of the study communities as determined from natural resource atlases. The major finding was that neutralizing antibody acquistion to VSV-New Jersey was greatest for persons living at elevations between 350 and 649 meters, with relatively open, dry vegetation and distinct seasonal alternation of dry and moist (not wet) ground conditions. Similar ecological associations were found for VSV-Indiana, except that the risk of infection was also high in moist environments with dense tree cover. The results suggest that VSV-New Jersey and VSV-Indiana have similar but not identical maintenance and transmission cycles and that basic maintenance cycles for both viruses may exist in dry, open habitats rather than in tropicla rain forest habitats as was previously assumed for VSV-Indiana.