Urban Shantytown Research Articles

Psychological distress, low-income, and socio-economic vulnerability in the COVID-19 pandemic

ObjectivesAlthough literature broadly reports the impact of COVID-19 on global mental health, little is known about the extent of its deleterious impact on the most vulnerable individuals. The present study aimed to evaluate the level of psychological distress of adult's residents of two urban shantytown communities located in São Paulo city, Brazil. Study designThis was a cross-sectional study. MethodsAn online questionnaire was divided into four sections: (1) informed consent, (2) socio-economic data, (3) 12-item general health questionnaire, and (4) Brazilian food insecurity scale was applied. ResultsOf the 495 family headship (448 females and 47 males), the mean age was 36.1 years, 85% have an indication of psychological distress, 61.4% had a monthly income less than or equal to $70, and the incidence of households experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity was 40%. Multivariate logistic regression revealed that respondents who experienced moderate or severe food insecurity (odds ratio [OR] = 2.701, confidence interval [CI] 95% = 1.265–5.769; P = 0.010) and lower monthly income (OR = 2.031, CI 95% = 1.056–3.908; P = 0.034) had a higher risk of psychological distress. On the other hand, having an employment is a protective factor against the stressful situations caused by COVID-19 pandemic (P = 0.029). ConclusionThe present study identified low-income younger women residents of urban slums who suffer from food insecurity as high-risk groups to have psychological distress. Our findings are of particular importance because they showed the intersection of vulnerabilities during the COVID-19 outbreak.

ShantytownMexico:TheDemocraticOpening inCiudadNezahualcóyotl, 1969–1976

The article analyzes political conflict in Mexico through a powerful social movement that erupted in the massive shantytown of Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl between 1969 and 1973. In the summer of 1969, after decades of abysmal living conditions, the residents of Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl (Neza) launched a payment strike to demand the federal government expropriate the land from private land developers, with the intent to gain urban infrastructure and formal property titles. The rebellion that plunged Ciudad Neza into a state of perpetual strife reflects a juncture in Mexican history when the urban shantytown emerged as a distinct and influential site for mass politics. This article historicizes Mexico's urban shantytown as a political space where the ruling party's entrenched clientelism contended with embryonic forms of local democracy. Revealing numerous contradictions, this case study is emblematic of how the urban periphery was a precursor to the vibrant yet incomplete democratization that would come to define national politics in Mexico and much of Latin America in the 1980s.

Cross-sectional study of dengue-related knowledge, attitudes and practices in Villa El Salvador, Lima, Peru

ObjectivesTo describe and quantify the dengue-related knowledge, attitudes and practices of residents in an urban shantytown in Lima, Peru.Design/settingA cross-sectional survey of adults between 18 and 80 years living in...

Mechanical and Ultrasonic Testing of Self-Compacting Concrete

Based on the urban shantytown renovation project in Hongguang Town, Helan County, Ningxia, in Northwest China, the influence of fly ash and silica fume admixture on the mechanical properties of Self-compacting Concrete (SCC) was tested and analyzed in this work. The experimental tests including compressive strength, splitting strength, triaxial strength and an ultrasonic nondestructive test. Furthermore, the Back Propagation (BP) neural network algorithms were established. The results show that there is an obvious difference between the development law of compressive strength of SCC and that of ordinary concrete. The splitting pressure ratio of SCC is 1/10 to 1/8, while that of ordinary concrete is 1/13 to 1/10. Moreover, the peak strain, peak stress and initial stiffness of SCC increase with the increase of the confining pressure when compressed from three directions. In addition, the ultrasonic amplitude of SCC can reflect the changing laws of its compressive strength. As a conclusion, the addition of fly ash and silica fume increases the splitting pressure ratio of SCC. More importantly, the compressive strength formula for SCC with silica fume and a low content of fly ash is proposed, and the model equation between the amplitude and compressive strength is given. This study provides a reference for the mixture ratio of fly ash and silica fume in the application of SCC.

Skinfold thickness and the incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus and hypertension: an analysis of the PERU MIGRANT study.

To determine the association between excess body fat, assessed by skinfold thickness, and the incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and hypertension (HT). Data from the ongoing PERU MIGRANT Study were analysed. The outcomes were T2DM and HT, and the exposure was skinfold thickness measured in bicipital, tricipital, subscapular and suprailiac areas. The Durnin-Womersley formula and SIRI equation were used for body fat percentage estimation. Risk ratios and population attributable fractions (PAF) were calculated using Poisson regression. Rural (Ayacucho) and urban shantytown district (San Juan de Miraflores, Lima) in Peru. Adults (n 988) aged ≥30 years (rural, rural-to-urban migrants, urban) completed the baseline study. A total of 785 and 690 were included in T2DM and HT incidence analysis, respectively. At baseline, age mean was 48·0 (sd 12·0) years and 47 % were males. For T2DM, in 7·6 (sd 1·3) years, sixty-one new cases were identified, overall incidence of 1·0 (95 % CI 0·8, 1·3) per 100 person-years. Bicipital and subscapular skinfolds were associated with 2·8-fold and 6·4-fold risk of developing T2DM. On the other hand, in 6·5 (sd 2·5) years, overall incidence of HT was 2·6 (95 % CI 2·2, 3·1) per 100 person-years. Subscapular and overall fat obesity were associated with 2·4- and 2·9-fold risk for developing HT. The PAF for subscapular skinfold was 73·6 and 39·2 % for T2DM and HT, respectively. We found a strong association between subscapular skinfold thickness and developing T2DM and HT. Skinfold assessment can be a laboratory-free strategy to identify high-risk HT and T2DM cases.

Population profile and residential environment of an urban poor community in Dhaka, Bangladesh

ObjectivesA population survey was conducted in an urban shantytown in Bangladesh, as a baseline study of future epidemiological studies. This paper aims to describe the findings of the study, including the population profile and residential environment of the urban poor.MethodsWe conducted a complete count household survey in an urban poor community in Dhaka. Using a brief structured questionnaire in Bengali language, trained interviewers visited each household and asked questions such as: duration of residence; ownership of house, toilet and kitchen; water supply; number of family members; age, sex, education, occupation, tobacco use, and history of diseases of each family member.ResultsWe found that there were 8604 households and 34,170 people in the community. Average number of household members was 4.0. Most people had access to safe water, but only 16% lived in the house with a toilet. Based on the proxy indicators of household wealth levels, we identified that about 39% were relatively well-off, while the rest were very poor. Tobacco use was prevalent in men regardless of age and in women aged over 35 years. Prevalence of self-reported hypertension and diabetes was slightly higher in women than in men, although over 70% of the respondents didn’t know if they had such diseases. Incidences of diarrhea in the last one month were relatively low.ConclusionsThe study showed population profile and sanitation environment in an urban poor community by a complete count survey. We expect the study to serve as a baseline for future epidemiological studies.

Between Nostalgia and Apocalypse: Popular Music and the Staging of Brazil by Daniel B. Sharp

Between Nostalgia and Apocalypse: Popular Music and the Staging of Brazil. By Daniel B. Sharp. (Music/ Culture.) Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2014. [xxiii, 159 p. ISBN 9780819575012 (hardcover), $80; ISBN 9780819575029 (paperback), $27.95; ISBN 9780819575036 (e-book), $21.99.] Notes, bibliography, index.Anyone who has spent time in northeastern Brazil knows it as a region of contrasts. Lush coastlines give way to vast swathes of sugarcane plantation, which themselves fade into the sweltering moonscape of the arid sertao. The region's colonial history, encompassing five centuries of conquest, slavery, revolt, and frequently uneven encounters between diverse cultures and peoples, is the backdrop for some of South America's most innovative technological and artistic expressions. And widespread racialized inequality, both social and economic, is a hallmark of the entire vast region, which covers roughly 600,000 square miles. But unlike the high-rise/favela (urban shantytown) dichotomy familiar to non-Brazilians from international news, films, and popular music from the southeastern hub of Rio de Janeiro, this northeastern heritage of inequality is deeply imbricated with nostalgic ideas about the cultural roots of the nation as a whole- complicating northeastern artists' efforts to draw on their local traditions in order to both explore their regional identity and participate in a national conversation about modern Brazil.This challenge is at the heart of Daniel Sharp's excellent ethnography of music making in the town of Arcoverde in the interior of the state of Pernambuco. Fittingly, Sharp's account begins with his own journey from the urban coastal capitol of Recife to Arcoverde, and details his first full day of a year's worth of fieldwork in the town- over the course of which he is treated to the practiced hospitality of a prominent local family of musicians at their famed bar-cum-rehearsal space, gets a glimpse of contentious neighborhood politics, and takes in a polished folkloric music and dance performance at a lavish, publiclyfunded cultural center. Sharp's description of his first day not only firmly situates Arcoverde's local music scene in the regional tourist industry, in which affluent, primarily white-identified urbanites visit places like Arcoverde in search of an authentic (i.e., underdeveloped, simple, and racially mixed) Northeast. It also explicitly points to his own position in a long line of several generations of both researchers and recreational visitors interested in the region because of its purported preservation of cultural practices explicitly tied to a nostalgic vision of Afro-Brazilian heritage, in contrast to the predominant white and mestico (indigenous and European mixture) cowboy culture of most of the Pernambuco countryside. This close attention to the ideological and logistical spaces of fieldwork is one of the great strengths of Sharp's book. While he meticulously details his own encounters with local musicians and provides the reader with insightful and respectful analysis of his interlocutors' attempts to balance commercial success with respect for their heritage, he remains always aware of his own position as a privileged foreigner whose presence simultaneously brings local status to the musicians with whom he works, contributes to tensions between artists competing for recognition beyond the confines of Arcoverde, and-since he sticks around for much longer than the typical tourist's long weekend-challenges his friends and hosts to make sense of him in their daily lives as musicians and businesspeople.Sharp focuses on the two groups of musicians who have gained the most recognition and commercial success outside of Arcoverde, albeit for significantly different reasons. The first is the family band Coco Raizes de Arcoverde, which specializes in a local form of roots samba with explicit links to Afro-Brazilian traditions of drumming, percussive dance, and call-and-response singing, and which traces its artistic and genealogical lineage back to the improvising poets of the deep sertao or arid badlands. …

Seizures, cysticercosis and rural-to-urban migration: the PERU MIGRANT study.

To examine the prevalence of seizures, epilepsy and seropositivity to cysticercosis in rural villagers (cysticercosis-endemic setting), rural-to-urban migrants into a non-endemic urban shanty town and urban inhabitants of the same non-endemic shanty town. Three Peruvian populations (n=985) originally recruited into a study about chronic diseases and migration were studied. These groups included rural inhabitants from an endemic region (n=200), long-term rural-to-urban migrants (n=589) and individuals living in the same urban setting (n=196). Seizure disorders were detected by a survey, and a neurologist examined positive respondents. Serum samples from 981/985 individuals were processed for cysticercosis antibodies on immunoblot. Epilepsy prevalence (per 1000 people) was 15.3 in the urban group, 35.6 in migrants and 25 in rural inhabitants. A gradient in cysticercosis antibody seroprevalence was observed: urban 2%, migrant 13.5% and rural group 18% (P<0.05). A similarly increasing pattern of higher seroprevalence was observed among migrants by age at migration. In rural villagers, there was strong evidence of an association between positive serology and having seizures (P=0.011) but such an association was not observed in long-term migrants or in urban residents. In the entire study population, compared with seronegative participants, those with strong antibody reactions (≥4 antibody bands) were more likely to have epilepsy (P<0.001). It is not only international migration that affects cysticercosis endemicity; internal migration can also affect patterns of endemicity within an endemic country. The neurological consequences of cysticercosis infection likely outlast the antibody response for years after rural-to-urban migration.

Topographic Distribution of the Sand Flea Tunga penetrans in Wistar Rats and Humans in Two Endemic Areas in Brazil

Tungiasis is a zoonosis caused by Tunga penetrans. In Brazil, tungiasis is endemic in many resource-poor communities, in which various domestic and sylvatic animals act as reservoirs. Eighty laboratory-raised Wistar rats were exposed to T. penetrans in areas of intense transmission: a fishing village and an urban shantytown in Ceará State, northeast Brazil. The topographic distribution of lesions in Wistar rats was compared with the distribution of lesions in humans in the same area. Our results show that the topographic distribution of embedded sand fleas was almost identical in Wistar rats and humans and that lesions were confined to the feet. In humans, 76% of all lesions were located periungually, whereas in Wistar rats, 67% of lesions were located at the distal end of the digits (P = 0.73). Both had the majority of lesions at the toes and digits: 70.2% versus 65.7% (P = 0.79). The Wistar rat model mirrors human tungiasis in topographic distribution.

The effect of rural-to-urban migration on social capital and common mental disorders: PERU MIGRANT study

ObjectiveThis study aims to investigate whether there are differences in the prevalence of common mental disorders and social capital between migrant and non-migrant groups in Peru.MethodologyThe PERU MIGRANT study is a cross-sectional study comprising three groups: an urban group from a shanty town in Lima; a rural group from a community in Ayacucho-Peru; and a migrant group originally from Ayacucho currently living in the same urban shanty town. Common mental disorders were assessed using the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), and social capital was assessed using the Short Social Capital Assessment Tool (SASCAT). Poisson regression with robust standard errors was used to estimate prevalence ratios.ResultsThe overall prevalence of common mental disorders was 39.4%; the highest prevalence was observed in the rural group. Similar patterns were observed for cognitive social capital and structural social capital. However after adjustment for sex, age, family income and education, all but one of the significant relationships was attenuated, suggesting that in this population migration per se does not impact on common mental health disorders or social capital.ConclusionsIn the PERU MIGRANT study, we did not observe a difference in the prevalence of common mental disorders, cognitive and structural social capital between migrant and urban groups. This pattern of associations was also similar in rural and urban groups, except that a higher prevalence ratio of structural social capital was observed in the rural group.

Purity and Dirt as Social Constructions: Environmental Health in an Urban Shantytown of Lagos

The focus of this article, on everyday life management, emerges from a theoretical discussion about culturally specific attitudes to environmental health. Local perceptions of purity and dirt in an urban shantytown of Lagos, Nigeria, are examined through a case study of the Amukoko urban district. The qualitative data is from two fieldwork phases carried out in 1998 and 2001 in Lagos, consisting of eleven in‐depth interviews, eight focus group discussions and participatory observations among Yoruba women and men. In different communities, perceptions of purity and dirt are not self‐evident in terms of their meaning, but reflect the commonly shared values and moral codes of the community. Our principle interest is in the ways in which household water is construed as pure, particularly in the context of daily routines which reveal how the avoidance of pollution and the order of things are organized in the community. These constructions of purity comply with local perceptions of dirt, sanitation and environmental risks within the wider health care practices prevalent in the mixed and hybrid urban culture of metropolitan Lagos. Results imply that reformulated definitions of sanitation, for example between disposable and non‐disposable elements, are adopted via culturally specific perceptions of purity.Le thème de cet article, sur la gestion du quotidien, est né d’une discussion théorique sur les différentes attitudes culturelles face à l’hygiène de l’environnement. A travers une étude de cas sur le quartier d’Amukoko, sont étudiées les perceptions locales de pureté et saleté dans un bidonville de Lagos. Les données qualitatives émanent de deux phases de terrain réalisées dans la capitale nigériane en 1998 et 2001, comprenant onze entretiens approfondis, huit séances en groupe de discussion et des observations participatives d’hommes et de femmes Yoruba. Dans plusieurs communautés, pureté et saleté ne sont pas des perceptions évidentes en termes de signification, reflétant plutôt des valeurs partagées et des codes moraux communautaires. Le but est ici de comprendre comment l’eau du foyer est jugée pure, notamment dans le cadre des tâches quotidiennes révélatrices de la façon dont les précautions anti‐pollution et l’ordre des choses sont organisés dans la communauté. Ces interprétations de la pureté corroborent les perceptions locales de la saleté, de l’hygiène publique et des risques environnementaux au sein des pratiques sanitaires globales appliquées dans la culture urbaine mixte et hybride de la métropole de Lagos. D’après les résultats, sont adoptées des définitions de l’hygiène publique reformulées via des perceptions de la pureté spécifiques au plan culturel (éléments jetables et non‐jetables, par exemple).

Age-specific Helicobacter pylori seropositivity rates of children in an impoverished urban area of northeast Brazil.

We determined age-specific Helicobacter pylori seropositivity rates of 166 children and 39 mothers in an urban shantytown in northeast Brazil. Seropositivity rates increased from 23.1% at 0 to 11 months of age to only 39.3% by 96 to 131 months of age and were 82.1% at maturity. We observed no correlation between the seropositivity of the mothers and the seropositivity of their children.

Early childhood diarrhea is associated with diminished cognitive function 4 to 7 years later in children in a northeast Brazilian shantytown.

Diarrhea is well recognized as a leading cause of childhood mortality and morbidity in developing countries; however, possible long-term cognitive deficits from heavy diarrhea burdens in early childhood remain poorly defined. To assess the potential long-term impact of early childhood diarrhea (in the first 2 years of life) on cognitive function in later childhood, we studied the cognitive function of a cohort of children in an urban Brazilian shantytown with a high incidence of early childhood diarrhea. Forty-six children (age range, 6-10 years) with complete diarrhea surveillance during their first 2 years of life were given a battery of five cognitive tests. Test of Non-Verbal Intelligence-III (TONI) scores were inversely correlated with early childhood diarrhea (P = .01), even when controlling for maternal education, duration of breast-feeding, and early childhood helminthiasis (Ascaris or Trichuris). Furthermore, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III) Coding Tasks and WISC-III Digit Span (reverse and total) scores were also significantly lower in the 17 children with a history of early childhood persistent diarrhea (PD; P < .05), even when controlling for helminths and maternal education. No correlations were seen between diarrhea rates and Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning subtests or WISC-III Mazes. This report (with larger numbers of participants and new tests) confirms and substantially extends previous pilot studies, showing that long-term cognitive deficits are associated with early childhood diarrhea. These findings have important implications for the importance of interventions that may reduce early childhood diarrheal illnesses or their consequences.

Seroprevalence and seroincidence of Norwalk-like virus infection among Brazilian infants and children.

To determine the importance of Norwalk-like viruses (NLVs) as pediatric pathogens in a developing country, the seroprevalence and seroincidence of this group of viruses in a cohort of children less than 4 years of age in an urban shantytown in northeastern Brazil was examined. Serum samples were collected approximately every 6 months from 135 children who were surveyed three times each week for diarrhea and vomiting. NLV IgG was measured by an enzyme immunosorbent assay (EIA) with recombinant Norwalk virus capsid protein. Overall NLV seroprevalence was 71%, and the overall NLV seroconversion rate was 0.7 seroconversions per child-year. The highest age-specific NLV seroconversion rate (0.8 seroconversions per child-year) was observed in the 13-24-month age group. For all study children, the incidence of diarrhea and vomiting was significantly greater (P < 0.01) during time periods spanned by serum pairs that indicated NLV seroconversion compared with time periods without NLV seroconversion. However, NLV seroconversion was not associated with gastrointestinal symptoms during the first year of life.

Changes over time in the epidemiology of diarrhea and malnutrition among children in an Urban Brazilian Shantytown, 1989 to 1996

Background: Endemic diarrhea and its associated malnutrition remain leading causes of childhood morbidity and mortality in developing countries. This study was undertaken to describe changes in the incidence of diarrhea and prevalence of malnutrition among children in an urban Brazilian shantytown from 1989 to 1996. A secondary purpose was to examine associations between malnutrition and increased incidence and duration of diarrhea. Methods: From August 1989 through December 1996 a dynamic birth cohort of 315 children was followed for surveillance of diarrhea and nutrition. Study homes were visited twice or thrice weekly to assess the occurrence of diarrhea. Length and weight of the subjects were measured quarterly. Poisson regression was used to test for associations between prior nutritional status and subsequent diarrhea during a quarter. Multiple regression was used to test for an association between nutritional status and episode duration. Results: Declines in both age-adjusted attack rates (6.0 episodes/child-year in 3-year-olds to 2.5 episodes/child-year in 8-year-olds) and days with diarrhea per child-year (30.8 days/child-year in 3-year-olds to 8.5 days/child-year in 8-year-olds) were highly correlated with yearly improvements in mean nutritional status (R 2 = 0.84, P < 0.05, for mean length-for-age with mean number of episodes/child-year). Both length- and weight-for-age were significant predictors of diarrhea incidence, including persistent episodes (≥14 d), but not duration. Conclusions: These results demonstrate marked changes over time in the diarrhea burden and nutritional status of children in this population and provide further evidence of a significant association between malnutrition and increased incidence of diarrhea.

Genomic diversity of "Norwalk like viruses" (NLVs): pediatric infections in a Brazilian shantytown.

"Norwalk-like viruses" (NLVs) are a common cause of epidemic gastroenteritis in adults and children in developed countries. However, little is known about the role of NLVs in endemic pediatric gastroenteritis in developing countries. We sequenced Genogroup I and II NLV reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) products from an 81-nucleotide region of the viral RNA polymerase gene to examine the molecular epidemiology of NLV infection in children younger than 5 years of age in Forteleza, Ceará, Brazil. NLV-positive PCR products were obtained from stool specimens collected over a 16-month period (1990-1991) from diarrhea cases and controls in a cohort of 120 children in an urban shantytown and from a study in the same city of hospitalized children with persistent diarrhea. Eight unique strains were detected in 15 specimens from 10 cohort children and in two hospital specimens. Nucleotide identity between the strains (5 Genogroup I, 3 Genogroup II) ranged from 63% to 88%. We designated these strains BraV1-8, for Brazil virus 1-8. The degree of genomic diversity of NLV strains we identified in this cohort during a short time period suggests multiple foci of infection within the community. Furthermore, sequence analysis of strains from two children with multiple symptomatic NLV infections indicates that infection with one strain was not protective against subsequent infection with a different strain in the same genogroup. These findings have implications for vaccine development and the prevention of pediatric gastroenteritis in developing countries.

Maternal Zinc Supplementation Does Not Affect Size at Birth or Pregnancy Duration in Peru

To estimate the effect of maternal zinc deficiency on pregnancy outcomes, we conducted a zinc supplementation trial in an urban shantytown in Lima, Peru, a population with habitual low zinc intakes. Beginning at 10–24 wk gestation, 1295 mothers were randomly assigned to receive prenatal supplements containing 60 mg iron and 250 (g folate, with or without 15 mg zinc. Women were followed up monthly during pregnancy. At birth, newborn weight was recorded, and crownheel length, head circumference and other circumferences and skinfold thicknesses were assessed on d 1. At delivery, 1016 remained in the study; duration of pregnancy was known for all women, and birth weight information was available for 957 newborns. No differences were noted in duration of pregnancy (39.4 ± 2.2 vs. 39.5 ± 2.0 wk) or birth weight (3267 ± 461 vs. 3300 ± 498 g) by prenatal supplement type (iron + folate + zinc vs. iron + folate; P > 0.05), and there were no differences in the rates of preterm (<37 wk) or post-term (>42 wk) delivery, low birth weight (<2500 g) or high birth weight (>4000 g). Finally, there were no differences by prenatal supplement type in newborn head circumference, crownheel length, chest circumference, mid-upper arm circumference, calf circumference or skinfold thickness at any of three sites. Adjustment for covariates and confounding factors did not alter these results. Adding zinc to prenatal iron and folate tablets did not affect duration of pregnancy or size at birth in this population.

Seasonal change in nutritional status among young children in an urban shanty town in Peru

Seasonal variation in nutritional status among young children has been described in rural populations, but in few urban settings. We examined seasonality in 7 years of nutritional surveillance data from an urban shanty town near Lima, Peru, where childen 0–35 months old were measured at intervals of 4–5 months. We compared nutritional status by month, using generalized estimating equations to account for the inter-correlations among measurements of the same person at different times. The periodicity of the seasonal variation was found to fit a model in which the month of the year was sine-transformed, and this sine-transformed model was used to examine possible interactions with age, sex and year of examination. A total of 38 626 measurements was available from 11 333 children. In late winter, mean weight-for-height was an estimated 0.38 Z score higher than in late summer. The seasonal effect occurred at all ages, in both sexes, and in each year of surveillance. The amplitude was greatest for children 6–23 months old. The summer trough in weight-for-height was lower in 1989 than in other years; children who experienced this summer low had lower mean height-for-age in subsequent years. The seasonal variation in nutritional status may be related to differences in dietary intake, or to the higher prevalence of bacterial diarrhoea in summer than in winter. The more marked drop in weight-for-height in 1989 and subsequent trough in height-for-age may be related to political and economic changes than adversely affected food access in Peru.

Distribution of hydatidosis and cysticercosis in different Peruvian populations as demonstrated by an enzyme-linked immunoelectrotransfer blot (EITB) assay. The Cysticercosis Working Group in Peru (CWG).

A serosurvey for human hydatidosis and cysticercosis was performed in different regions of Peru. Those regions included a known endemic area for cystic hydatid disease, a cooperative in the central Peruvian Andes near the city of Tarma, Department of Junin; three areas endemic for cysticercosis in the Departments of Ancash, Cuzco, and San Martin, where the status of hydatid disease is not well defined; and an urban shantytown near Lima, where neither zoonosis is known to be present. A seroprevalence for hydatidosis 1.9% (6 of 309) was found with both the enzyme-linked immunoelectrotransfer blot (EITB) and double diffusion assays in the area endemic for hydatidosis. Seroprevalence in the other zones tested was zero using only the EITB assay. Cysticercosis seroprevalence was high in pig-raising zones but low in the high-altitude, sheep-raising areas and in the seaport of Callao. No cross-reactions between Echinococcus granulosus and cysticercosis were noted in any of the regions studied. Hydatid infection remains a major health problem in the central Peruvian Andes where sheep raising is widely practiced; however, in those regions where mainly swine are raised, human hydatid infection is not a problem.

Cantando la cama vacía: love, sexuality and gender relationships in Dominican bachata

Several patterns emerge in bachata's discussions of love, sex and relationships with women. There is little sense of place in the songs – rarely is a specific place name mentioned or invoked, in marked contrast to other Caribbean musical genres associated with listeners of rural origins, in which place names are constantly invoked for affective purposes. The people in bachata songs do not seem to exist anywhere – except the bar, which, I suggest, is a metaphor for the urban shantytown itself. Neither is there a sense of movement, of going anywhere. There is no imagery of journey, or travel, unlike other musics, such as Brazilian popular music or US country music, in which the road and trucks figure prominently. People are neither being pulled or pushed anywhere – out of home, into home, out of work, into work.Life, as expressed in bachata songs, seems fragmentary and lacks coherence – and in that sense, these songs are thoroughly modern. The songs as texts are vignettes, brief snapshots – bites, to use contemporary jargon – that evoke salient parts of events or situations, rather than descriptive narratives that carefully develop a story over time and place. (The only exceptions are the double entendre songs, in which narrative is more a necessity as a framework for the word play than an end in itself.)Bachata songs focus on the pain of losing a woman, but the difficulties of city life are implicitly to blame. Given that both men and women experience this pain, it seems odd that bachateros express no sense of solidarity with women, of shared social and economic trouble, as can sometimes be found in rock songs, for example, where singers invoke the power of love to overcome economic hardship or social prejudice. Bachata expresses a strong sense of vulnerability, betrayal, alienation and despair; yet the songs' anger is directed not at those above – the middle and upper classes – who have indeed betrayed and abandoned the poor as a class: instead, men's wrath is directed below, to a group of people – women – even more vulnerable to exploitation than men themselves. As we have seen, in bachata women are often portrayed as the aggressors and men as victims. Yet men certainly know that even if they can no longer control women as they once may have, in the modern world men clearly exercise more power over their lives than women. Men can, in fact, afford the luxury of expressing vulnerability to emotional pain. Women are the silent ones; their voices are not heard, although their presence can nevertheless be felt intensely. These unresolved tensions, between owner and property, aggressor and victim, voice and silence, freedom and control, order and chaos, are all symbolically explored in bachata.