Nucleic acid and protein electrophoretic analyses of the Chilean isolate of infectious pancreatic necrosis virus showed that genomic RNA, as well as the major proteins, were indistinguishable from those of the VR-299 serotype. The data are in good agreement with the theory that the virus was introduced into Chile from North America.

BackgroundThe incidence of canine rabies cases in El Salvador has decreased in the last decade since the establishment of intense control programs, such as massive vaccination campaigns implemented by the Ministry of Health. Socioeconomic crises in recent years have limited the access to certain areas across the country and have impacted surveillance and prevention campaigns, which places the country at risk for a resurgence of canine rabies.We aimedto describe the spatiotemporal patterns of canine rabies and its association with critical social factors in El Salvador from 2005 to 2014.MethodWe included 459 cases of canine rabies. Several socioeconomic, demographic, and surveillance variables were modeled using a Poisson regression to evaluate their associations with the incidence of canine rabies. Spatial scan statistics were adjusted or unadjusted with covariates and applied to identify statistically significant clusters of canine rabies. Finally, a canine rabies risk map was created.ResultsA positive association and higher risk of canine rabies were found for low poverty zones, where it is suspected that urban slums contribute to ongoing rabies transmission (RR = 7.74). Violence had a negative association with rabies (RR = 0.663), which is likely due to reporting bias. Significant clusters were identified in all five epidemiological regions, and the Eastern region had the highest risk (RR = 50.62). The influences of the selected variables in cluster detection were confirmed by the adjusted analysis. Higher-risk townships were distributed from the Western to the Eastern regions of the country.ConclusionSocial factors are determinants of rabies in El Salvador and play a major role in national spatial patterns of the disease. There are high-risk areas for canine rabies across the country, and there were two persistent rabies foci during the study period. Examining the role of social factors can provide better insight into rabies in vulnerable countries, and socioeconomic factors can be key elements in developing better policies and interventions for rabies control.

This paper examines the concept of democratic local governance and its relevance for health development in Central America, a region which was torn apart by conflict in the 1980s. Peace-building has been taking place since the 1990s in a difficult macro-level context, as stabilization and structural adjustment policies in the postwar period have led to drastic state reforms with high social costs for the marginalized population. Innovative experiences and strategies in health have also developed in the region over the last decades, based upon local participatory governance, contributions to public health policy, development and peace-building at the local level. This article describes two of these municipal health development processes, the SILOS (Local Health Systems) in the northern zone of San Salvador, El Salvador and the municipal health process in León, Nicaragua. The paper examines the relevance and sustainability of these local initiatives and the importance of democratic local governance for (health) development. It also analyzes the extent to which macro-level reform policies have enabled the development of these processes and the perspective for sustainability of democratic local governance in countries confronted by serious lack of governability. Whilst the imperative for reform/change is beyond doubt, as well as the advances booked in terms of local democratic governance and health, the authors underline the need to address the incoherence in global reform policies and - in the current situation - the impossibility of achieving democratic governance and equity in health within the confines of the city. Finally, the authors question the relevance of a development paradigm that does not address democratic local governance and existing structural (political, social, economic) inequalities.

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