Revista médica de Chile
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Revista médica de Chile · Jun 2020
Cytomegalovirus infection in AIDS patients. An illustrative case series.
Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is an opportunistic infection (OI) in immunosuppressed patients. However, there are no clear cut-off values available for quantitative plasmatic CMV measures (viral load [VL]) to discriminate those with CMV illness from those infected suffering a transient viral reactivation. ⋯ The predominant clinical manifestation in our series was gastrointestinal. A CMV VL cutoff level of CMV VL of 3,800 copies / mL is useful to discriminate infected patients from those with CMV related disease.
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The digital revolution is creating opportunities and challenges in the field of medicine and the Digital Hospital could be a benefit for patients, if they are able to use the Internet. ⋯ Income levels, age, schooling and stroke related disability limit Internet use in this population.
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Revista médica de Chile · Jun 2020
[A surveillance system to detect COVID-19 infections in health care workers. Experience in 209 cases].
Healthcare personnel are a high-risk group for acquiring COVID-19 disease. They represent 4 to 20% of the total number of cases reported in different geographical areas. ⋯ The telephone symptom monitoring program allowed the early detection of a significant number of healthcare officials with acute respiratory infection due to coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, it is easy to implement and has a low cost.
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Revista médica de Chile · Jun 2020
[Evaluation of HIV epidemic in Chile. A statement of the Chilean Academy of Medicine].
The Chilean Academy of Medicine convened a commission to evaluate the status of HIV epidemic and the national response to it, regarding its achievements, gaps and challenges, aiming to recommend actions to optimize assessment quality and national response. This publication summarizes the agreed upon opinion of its members. The epidemic is overwhelmingly sexually transmitted, predominant in homo/bisexual men. ⋯ Despite these clear achievements, insufficient, occasionally inadequate public policies and certain rigid regulations thwart optimal effectivity and efficiency of the programs, contributing to the slow and incomplete compliance with international commitments. Shortcomings worth highlighting are: suboptimal educational and preventive programs directed to youngsters, vulnerable and general population; persistent underdiagnosis of infected population; cumbersome requirements to request and inform diagnostic tests, thus discouraging testing; excessive centralization and long latency of diagnosis confirmation and monitoring tests; incomplete epidemiologic analysis and public reporting of findings; non flexibility and slow updating of therapeutic guidelines; insufficient adaptation of care and drug delivery modalities to patients' needs; excessive administrative requirements at care centers and restrictive legislation for outcome and interventional clinical research. Recommendations to deal with these issues were proposed.
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Revista médica de Chile · Jun 2020
[Older people in Chile: the new social, economic and health challenge for the 21st century].
Ageing will be one of the most significant social transformations of the 21st century worldwide. In the last 40 years, Chile has tripled its older adult population. ⋯ In this context, this narrative revision aimed to describe the sociodemographic, epidemiologic and sociocultural profile of the older Chilean adults. Besides, programs and public policies focused on the improvement of their quality of life were identified.