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At least 685 records · Page 38Linked to original sources
PubMed2004

The effects of long-term community level treatment with ivermectin (Mectizan) on adult Onchocerca volvulus in Latin America.

The objective of this study was to examine nodules from Mexico, Guatemala, and Ecuador collected over a one-year period (2001) to determine the effects of semi-annual ivermectin treatments on Onchocerca volvulus macrofilarial populations. Nodules were sectioned, stained with hematoxylin and eosin, and histologic findings were compared between countries and with historical data prior to the introduction of ivermectin into the region. Nodules from Ecuador had 10 times more dead or moribund worms than the historical control (66.6% versus 6.5%); nodules from patients from Mexico and Guatemala did not differ from the control. More than 80% of the female worms in each country were uninseminated and producing unfertilized oocytes. Nodules containing males differed in each country from the historical control (P < 0.0001), with presence of males ranging from 19.7% in Mexico to 13.6% in Ecuador versus 73% in the control. Nodules with females producing active microfilariae ranged from 7.8% (Mexico) to 2.7% (Ecuador) versus 60% in the historical control (P < 0.0001). Nodules from Ecuador and Mexico were significantly smaller in size than those from Guatemala or historical controls (P < 0.0005). These results depict a deteriorating condition of adult O. volvulus populations in Mexico, Guatemala and Ecuador, indicating that semi-annual ivermectin treatment of >/=6 years has had a profound effect on survival and reproduction of this species.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Use of mobile low-bandwith telemedical techniques for extreme telemedicine applications.

BACKGROUND: Telemedicine is traditionally associated with the use of very expensive and bulky telecommunications equipment along with substantial bandwidth requirements (128 kilobytes per second [kbps] or greater). Telementoring is an educational technique that involves real-time guidance of a less experienced physician through a procedure in which he or she has limited experience. This technique has been especially dependent on the aforementioned requirements. Traditionally, telemedicine and telementoring have been restricted to technically sophisticated sites. The telemedicine applications through the existing telecommunication infrastructure has not been possible for underdeveloped parts of the world. STUDY DESIGN: Telemedicine and telementoring were applied using low-bandwidth mobile telemedicine applications to support a mobile surgery program in rural Ecuador run by the Cinterandes Foundation and headed by Edgar Rodas, MD. A mobile operating room traveled to a remote region of Ecuador. Using a laptop computer equipped with telemedicine software, a videoconferencing system, and a digital camera, surgical patients were evaluated and operative decisions were made over low-bandwidth telephone lines. Similarly, surgeons in the mobile unit in Ecuador were telementored by an experienced surgeon located thousands of miles away at Yale University School of Medicine. RESULTS: Five preoperative evaluations were conducted from Sucua to Cuenca, Ecuador, with excellent clinical correlation. Additionally, a laparoscopic cholecystectomy was successfully telementored from the department of surgery at Yale University School of Medicine to the mobile surgery unit in Ecuador. The telementored surgery was performed using a telephone line with a baud rate of 12 kbps. CONCLUSIONS: Mobile, low-bandwidth telemedicine applications used in the proper technical and clinical algorithms can be very effective in supporting remote health care delivery efforts. Advantages of such applications include increased cost-effectiveness by limiting travel, expanding services to patients, and increased patient quality assurance.

Ecuador↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Social inequality and child malnutrition in four Andean countries.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the effects of socioeconomic, regional, and ethnic conditions on chronic malnutrition in four Andean countries of South America: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. METHODS: The study was based on Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) for Colombia (1995), Peru (1996), and Bolivia (1997), and on a Living Standard Measurement Survey for Ecuador (1998). We developed an index of household socioeconomic status using categorical principal components analysis. We broke down the prevalence of stunting by socioeconomic status (SES), ethnicity, place of residence (large cities, small cities, towns, and countryside), and region (highland region versus other areas of the country). We applied smoothed regression curves and linear functions to analyze SES effects on stunting, with specific models for Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru. RESULTS: Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru have similar characteristics, with high stunting prevalences overall; higher stunting prevalences in their highland areas, particularly among indigenous populations; and strong socioeconomic disparities. Colombia, in contrast, has a lower stunting prevalence and smaller regional disparities. The socioeconomic gradient of stunting is strong in all four countries, with prevalence rates in the poorest deciles at least three times as high as those in the top decile. DISCUSSION: The sharp contrast between the conditions found in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru and those in Colombia may be the result of specific ethnic factors affecting indigenous groups; a particular diet profile in the highland areas, with low protein and micronutrient intake; and differences in the long-term economic and social development paths that the countries have taken. Along with the strong socioeconomic gradient in all the countries, the weight of ethnic and regional factors suggests the need to reduce inequality as well as to comprehensively improve education and housing, better target health and nutrition programs, and implement participatory programs integrated into indigenous cultures.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Onchocera volvulus: characterization of a highly immunogenic Gln-rich protein.

A pool of sera from individuals classified as putatively immune (PI) to Onchocerca volvulus infection was employed in the screening of a fourth-stage larval cDNA expression library. A highly immunogenic clone, encoding the Ov 53/80 protein, was identified. The full length cDNA of clone 4.21 contained 2527 nucleotides encoding 769 amino acids of which 100 are glutamine residues (13%). Antibodies raised against recombinant protein encoded by a partial cDNA sequence (clone 73-k) recognized a 53 and 80 kDa protein in O. volvulus larval and adult parasite extracts, respectively. The antibodies localized the native protein in the cuticle, hypodermis, secretory vesicles and in granules of the glandular esophagus of larvae and in the hypodermis and the cuticle of adult worms. The recombinant 73-k polypeptide (r73) was recognized by 90-100% of sera from PI and infected individuals from Liberia, but only by 67% of similar groups from Ecuador. r73 specific IgG2 and IgG3 levels in the PI from Liberia and Ecuador, respectively, were significantly lower than in the infected, whereas the r73 specific IgG1/IgG3 or IgG1/IgG2 in the PI and the infected individuals from Liberia or Ecuador, respectively, were similar. The IgG4 specific antibody response in the PI from Liberia and Ecuador were lower than in the infected. The T-cell proliferative responses to r73 in infected individuals from Cameroon were found to be inversely correlated with their levels of microfilariae.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Mitochondrial DNA variation within and between two species of neotropical anopheline mosquitoes (Diptera:Culicidae).

We analyzed variation in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of two neotropical mosquitoes, Anopheles rangeli (n = 181) and A. trinkae (n = 45), with very different distribution patterns in Latin America, to assess species boundaries for these putative sister taxa and to examine population genetic structure. Phylogenetic analyses revealed (1) support for the monophyletic origin of each species; (2) diagnostic restriction site differences between the species; (3) geographic partitioning of haplotypes by country in A. rangeli from Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela compared with considerable overlap in haplotypes of A. trinkae from Bolivia and Ecuador; and (4) similar levels of mean haplotype and nucleotide diversity in both species, but lower levels of mean nucleotide divergence in A. trinkae compared with A. rangeli. We hypothesize that higher maternal gene flow and lower divergence in A. trinkae are most likely due either to a distinctive matrilineal history or to a smaller effective population size, which may have been influenced by a smaller, essentially linear geographic range along the eastern flank of the Andes. In the cladistic analysis of A. rangell, the Bolivian haplotypes appear to be more derived than those from Ecuador or Venezuela, yet there is no evidence to support the hypothesis of a recent range expansion from Ecuador into Bolivia.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Canestriniid mites (Acari, Astigmata, Canestriniidae) occurring on Chrysomelidae (Insecta, Coleoptera) in neotropical region. I. Genera Grandiellina Fain, Arrunsithiana n. gen.

Genus Arrunsithiana and nine species are described as new: Grandiellina tacjannae from Brazil, Argentina, G. rogeri from Peru, G. longini from Bolivia, G. marinae from Mexico, G. soniae from Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Mexico, Arrunsithiana artemoni from Ecuador, A. erinnae from Ecuador, A. ilosi from Colombia, A. battosi from Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, Ecuador. Redescription of the genus Grandiellina Fain is given.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

Low incidence of follicular lymphoma and t(14;18)(q32;q21) by polymerase chain reaction analysis. observations on Ecuadorian patients.

Translocation (14;18)(q32;q21) has been shown to be present in diagnostic tissue specimens from approximately 85% of patients with follicular lymphoma (FL) and 30% with diffuse non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL) in the USA. Also, there is evidence that the distribution of NHL subtypes differs by geographic region; however, there are no data for Ecuador. Using polymerase chain reaction, we examined the frequency of t(14;18) (MBR and mcr rearrangements) in 65 NHL samples collected through 5 years from the principal hospitals of Quito, Ecuador. Of 65 NHL, only 5 were FL, which represents an incidence of 7.7%. This incidence is lower than observed in North America (30%). In addition, we did not find the t(14;18) in the samples analyzed, absence of which was confirmed by the use of a control. This suggests that this translocation is rare in NHL in Ecuador. These findings confirm that there are differences in the incidence of specific subtypes of NHL across some geographic areas and suggest that genetic factors may be responsible for the observed differences.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Measuring equity in access to health care.

This article develops and uses methodologies to: (1) measure equity in the distribution of access to health services; and (2) measure the impact of health insurance programs on equity. The article proposes two egalitarian-based indicators for measuring equity in terms of access to health care--a concentration coefficient derived from the Gini coefficient, and the Atkinson distributional measure and also employs a weighted Utilitarian social welfare function to measure overall levels of access. The article defines access as the use of health care by individuals with a need for care; need is measured as self-reported morbidity. The setting for the empirical application is the country of Ecuador. The Ecuador Social Security Institute runs a General Health Insurance (GHI) program, whose affiliates are primarily workers in the formal sector of the economy. The principal data source is the 1995 Ecuador Living Standards Measurement Survey. The study uses a microeconomic health care demand model and bivariate probit estimation techniques to measure the impact of insurance on health service use for each quintile of adjusted per-capita household expenditure. The study also predicts health care use and program impact for each quintile under a series of simulation scenarios corresponding to proposed expansion of eligibility for the GHI program. The GHI program increases overall access to health care, but has a negative impact on equity in the distribution of health services. The benefits of the program, calculated as its marginal impact on the probability of using of health care, have a strongly regressive distribution. Expanding eligibility to the self-employed makes the benefit more equitably distributed (but still inequitable), and increases overall social welfare considerably. Expanding eligibility to the dependents of the insured person has similar effects, although less important in magnitude.

Ecuador↗
PubMed2002

Statistical differentiation of bananas according to their mineral composition.

The concentrations of Na, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Cu, Zn, and Mn were determined in banana cultivars Gran enana and Pequeña enana cultivated in Tenerife and in cv. Gran enana bananas from Ecuador. The mineral concentrations in the bananas from Tenerife and from Ecuador were clearly different. The cultivar did not influence the mineral concentrations except in the case of Fe. Variations according to cultivation method (greenhouse and outdoors) and farming style (conventional and organic) in the mineral concentrations in the bananas from Tenerife were observed. The mineral concentrations in the internal part of the banana were higher than those in the middle and external parts. Representation of double log correlations K-Mg and Zn-Mn tended to separate the banana samples according to origin. Applying factor and cluster analysis, the bananas from Ecuador were well separated from the bananas produced in Tenerife, and therefore, these are useful tools for differentiating the origin of bananas.

Agriculture↗
PubMed2003

Selenium serum concentrations in malnourished Ecuadorian children: a case-control study.

Little is known about the selenium status of children living in the Andean regions of South America, which commonly have volcanic soil with low selenium content. Human selenium deficiency has been hypothesized to have a negative impact on immune function and to increase the risk of infection. The objective of this study was to evaluate the serum selenium concentrations of severely malnourished children living in urban and rural Andean Ecuador, and to compare them to a control group of normally nourished children from the same communities. Forty-three children, aged six to 36 months, with marasmus or kwashiorkor and 30 control children were enrolled from July to November 1993 in Quito, Ecuador. Serum selenium concentrations were lower in the children with marasmus (0.91 +/- 0.28 microM/L, n = 21) and kwashiorkor (0.37 +/- 0.15 microM/L, n = 22) than in those who were normally nourished (1.77 +/- 0.75 microM/L, n = 30, p < 0.001 for each difference). The serum selenium concentrations in children with kwashiorkor were significantly lower than those in children with marasmus (p < 0.001). All 22 of the children with kwashiorkor, 15 of the 21 children with marasmus, and five of the 30 normal children had serum levels < 1.08 microM/L (8.5 micrograms/dL) (chi 2 = 38.4, p < 0.00000001). In the Andean regions of Ecuador, selenium deficiency is prevalent in children with protein and caloric deficiency. Furthermore, 17% of Ecuadorian children with normal weight-for age-Z score are selenium-deficient.

Case-Control Studies↗
PubMed1998

Ecuadorian adolescents and cigarette smoking: a cross-sectional survey.

This study investigates adolescents' attitudes and behaviors toward cigarette smoking in Ecuador. Using social cognitive theory as a basis, the cross-sectional survey focuses attention on such social influences as the smoking habits of family members and peers, as well as on the role of cigarette advertisements. Data on prevalence of actual use, access to cigarettes, and knowledge and attitudes about smoking are also obtained. The survey was conducted during the summer of 1994 in both urban and rural areas. Fifty schools in 40 different communities participated, resulting in a sample of 2,625 adolescents aged 9 to 15 years who completed the self-administered questionnaire. This study was conducted in collaboration with Amigos de las Américas (AMIGOS), an international health organization. Staff and volunteers who participated in projects conducted by AMIGOS in Ecuador worked with local health and education officials to implement the survey. Nearly 9% of students identified themselves as current smokers, 24.5% had experimented with smoking, and 61.1% had never smoked. The results varied significantly by age and gender, with older students and boys smoking at the highest rate. The smoking status of family members and peers also significantly predicted student smoking status. The results from this sample replicate findings from North American samples. Although Ecuadorian students smoke somewhat less than their American counterparts, cigarette smoking in Ecuador is a significant public health problem and clearly warrants a coordinated response. The present study points to several strategies for preventing smoking among youth.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Characterisation of a heparan sulfate proteoglycan homologue OvPG-1 from Onchocerca volvulus.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the role of an immunodominant antigen OvPG-1 in human onchocerciasis. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study of subjects living in three onchocerciasis endemic areas. SETTING: Mbonge and Tubah divisions of Western Cameroon and in Esmeralda Province of Ecuador. SUBJECTS: There were 94 and 99 subjects from the Cameroon rain forest and savannah respectively, and 83 endemic residents from Ecuador. RESULTS: The IgG2 anti-OvPG-1 responses of visually impaired and microfiladermic patients were significantly higher than for their age and sex matched counterparts with normal vision and no microfiladermia (p=0.024). Furthermore, the isotype specificity of anti-OvPG-I responses varied for the various onchocerciasis endemic zones. IgG1, IgG2, IgG3 and IgE levels correlated with the presence of microfilariae in Cameroon, but not in Ecuador. CONCLUSION: Increased IgG and IgE levels to the antigen OvPG-1 seem to correlate with the development of onchocercal eye pathology. The present results suggest that the OvPG1 is a dominant antigen of Onchocerca volvulus with a significant role in the pathogenesis of onchocerciasis.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Component proteins in cystic fluid of Taenia solium metacestodes collected surgically from neurocysticercosis patients.

Surgically collected cystic fluid of Taenia solium metacestodes from patients of intracranial cystic lesion were compared in their protein composition with those from naturally infected pigs in Cheju Do, Korea and Ecuador. In non-denaturing discontinuous-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (disc-PAGE), no discernible differences were recognized in banding patterns between the cystic fluids from Cheju Do and Ecuador, and between the cystic fluids from pigs and human lesions except wider bands that corresponded to human albumin and gamma-globulin (in 4 of 9 patients). In reducing SDS-PAGE, bands in the cystic fluid from Ecuador showed the same banding pattern with that from Cheju Do but two bands of 21 and 17 kDa were stained darker. Cystic fluids from patients revealed the same protein compositions of the major protein bands of 94, 64, 15, 10 and 7 kDa as in the cystic fluid of pig origin, but human albumin (66 kDa), heavy and light chains of gamma globulin (55 and 22.5 kDa) were contaminated in 4 of 9 cystic fluids. Human CSF proteins seem to have been contaminated during cystic fluid collection. In any cystic fluid from patients, the major protein component was 150 kDa which was subdivided into 15, 10 and 7 kDa in reducing SDS-PAGE.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

The contribution of repellent soap to malaria control.

A study about the acceptability, protective efficacy, effectiveness, and cost of a repellent soap containing 20% diethyltoluamide and 0.5% permethrin was carried out on the Pacific coast of Ecuador and Peru, where malaria is endemic and the transmission is seasonal. The malaria vectors were Anopheles albimanus, An. punctimacula, and An. pseudopunctipennis in Ecuador and An. albimanus in Peru. Comparing the hourly mosquito bites on human subjects with and without the protection of the repellent soap, it showed that inactive, protected subjects were bitten 94.2% less than unprotected controls 2 hr after application of the soap. This protective efficacy was reduced to 81% after 6 hr. In persons physically active for 3 hr after application, the efficacy of the soap was 67% in the fourth hour after application and 52% in the sixth hour after application. Sweating decreased the protective efficacy of the soap even more. In a community-based malaria control program, the soap was introduced by community health promoters. Acceptance was good when it was given free of charge but reduced dramatically when it was sold. People used the soap mainly because of the nuisance of mosquitoes. The application was generally done correctly. However, no significant impact on the incidence of malaria episodes could be shown when comparing intervention communities with control communities, either in Ecuador, where the proportion of Plasmodium falciparum cases was high, or in Peru, where P. vivax was the only species of Plasmodium seen. This can probably be explained by the limited use of soap and the shift of mosquito bites from users to nonusers of the repellent soap. The cost of a soap program would be $4.60 (USA) per person per year, which seems to be quite high in terms of cost of soap and its distribution related to people's low cash income. The implications of the introduction of repellent soap into a control program are discussed.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

[Tuberculosis in the area of Lorca: to adapt or resist].

OBJECTIVE: We studied the epidemiological characteristic of tuberculosis in Lorca area, drug resistant and the effect of the immigration population (Ecuador) in this area. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A retrospective study for six years ago (1999, January to 2004, December) was realized. Epidemiological data, initial diagnostic probability, mycobacteria stain and cultive, drug resistance, treatment response, and epidemiological differences between immigrants and spain population were compared. RESULTS: Within 158 cases registered, 41.7 percent were immigrants with less than one year in Spain, the most part Ecuador population. We observed that extrapulmonar tuberculosis was lower initial diagnostic probability than pleural disease as well too haemoptisis, pleural pain and weight loss. It was identified positive micobacterial stain in 35.4 percent of respiratory samples. It was successfully results in 74 percent of cases and 13.9 percent of patients were lost, this result was frequently registered in immigrants, The isoniazide resistant in patients with not previous treatment was 5.3 percent and it was 9.5 percent in immigrants and 10.8 percent in Ecuador population. CONCLUSION: It is necessary improve: the diagnostic of extrapulmonar tuberculosis and avoid loss patient by programs of capture and then the successfully treatments raise. The isoniazide resistant in this area suggest that we must use initial four drug than tree and this manner not raise the drug resistant in the area.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Coca-leaf production in the countries of the Andean subregion.

The estimated areas under coca-bush cultivation in 1988 are expected to total 44,300 hectares in Bolivia, 25,000 hectares in Colombia, 400 hectares in Ecuador and 114,400 hectares in Peru. The estimated projections for 1989 indicate that coca-leaf production may amount to 68,200 tonnes in Bolivia, 20,000 tonnes in Colombia, 300 tonnes in Ecuador and 120,100 tonnes in Peru. Of all the Andean countries, Venezuela is the only one that has no coca-leaf production problem. According to estimates for the period from 1985 to 1989, coca-leaf production will increase by 43.3 per cent in Bolivia, by 13.6 per cent in Colombia and by 26.2 per cent in Peru. Coca-leaf production in Ecuador has consistently followed a downward trend. According to estimates, since 1985 coca-leaf production in Peru has accounted for more than one half of the total amount produced in the Andean subregion, while production in Colombia, though it has increased in the same period, has accounted for a relatively small share. In 1987, estimated coca-leaf production in Bolivia amounted to 30.2 per cent of the total amount produced in the subregion.

Bolivia↗
PubMed1991

Seroepidemiology of human herpesvirus-6 in pregnant women from different parts of the world.

The prevalence of HHV-6 IgG was studied in 11 different countries across several continents: Morocco, Burkina-Faso, Congo, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Ecuador, Martinique, and France. The study group consisted of 550 pregnant women, representative of the general adult population in each country. Antibodies were detected by immunofluorescence assay on HSB-2 cells infected with HHV-6. Each serum was tested at nine dilutions (1:20 to 1:5,120), sera greater than or equal to 20 being considered positive. For the negative antigen control, we used mock-infected HSB-2 cells. Great differences were seen between separate areas: Morocco showed both low prevalence (20%) and a low geometric mean titer (12), whereas sub-Saharan Africa displayed high prevalences (60% to 90%) and variable geometric mean titers (34 to 229). This study revealed a prevalence of 92% for Ecuador, significantly higher than the prevalence for Martinique (50%), yet both countries had very low antibody titers compared with those found in Africa. The prevalence in France (76%) was similar to previous results from other European countries.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Immunoglobulin allotypes in Ecuadorian Cayapa Indians.

Indigenous Indian groups comprise approximately 20% of Ecuador's population, the third largest percentage in all of Central or South America, yet immunogenetic data on these groups are lacking in the literature. In the course of population migration studies, sera collected from 65 Ecuadorians living in the northern province of Esmeraldas were typed for six GM and two KM markers. The study population consisted of 47 Cayapa Indians and 18 blacks of African origin, descendants of slaves imported into the area during the seventeenth century. The Cayapa demonstrated three GM phenotypes, two of which are common to other South American Indian tribes. The frequency of KM1 positive Cayapa Indians (63%) is similar to other South American Indian tribes, but is significantly greater than the Huaorani of eastern Ecuador (2%), the only other Ecuadorian Indian group for whom limited immunoglobulin allotype data are available (chi 2 = 35.8, P < 0.0001).

Black People↗