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We have evaluated the prevalence of antibody to immunogenicity of Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) Key words: Haemophilus influenzae type b -natural immunity -pre-vaccination antibody titres -CubaHaemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) disease is now a major cause of vaccine-preventable morbidity and mortality in young children in developing countries. Despite the availability of a protective vaccine, few developing countries are using Hib vaccine in their immunization programs. The major obstacle to the routine use of Hib conjugate vaccine in most non-industrialized countries is cost (Fernández et al. 2000).In Cuba the Hib vaccination was introduced in the National Immunization Program in 1999, for all the children born between January 1998 and October 1999. After that, the incidence of Hib disease has decreased to 0.1 per 100,000 inhabitants, in (Dickinson et al. 2001. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the natural acquired immunity to Hib in a group of healthy children 4 to 5 years of age in the last cohort not vaccinated against Hib.This study was performed between February and May 2002, in the province of Camagüey, Cuba. Nine hundred and seventy four healthy children attending day care centers and schools were selected. No child had previously received Hib vaccine or had received any immunoglobulin preparation or blood product. Demographic and medical data were obtained through a personal interview with the mothers. Blood samples were drawn from children, and the serum was stored at -20°C until further analysis.Serum capsular polysaccharide specific IgG antibody (anti-PRP) concentrations were measured by a modification of the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using HbOHA (NIBSC, Potters Bar, UK) as antigen. dard curve was generated by using reference serum (lot 1983 Center for Biological Evaluation and Review, Food and Drug Administration, Bethesda, MD) with a calculated IgG antibody concentration (60.9 µg/ml) (Keythy et al. 1987, Phipps et al. 1990). IgG antibody concentration was logarithmic transformed and the geometric mean concentration (GMC) was calculated.Nasopharyngeal swabs were collected and inoculated on chocolate agar medium supplemented with V and X factor, and incubated in 5% CO 2 in air at 37°C overnight. Isolates were identified as H. influenzae by their requirements for V and X factors (BBL TAXO X and V FACTOR STRIPS, Becton Dickinson Microbiology System

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected persons, are at high risk for developing a bloodstream infection. In order to evaluate the usefulness of C-reactive protein (CRP) and procalcitonin (PTC) in the detection of bloodstream infection in HIV, a case-control study was conducted from February to December 2012. PCT and CPR levels were measured in 2 groups. PCT concentrations were measured by the VIDAS ® Brahms PCT assay, and CRP concentrations were determined by CRP latex. Values were calculated for both biomarkers and discriminative ability of PCT and CRP was analyzed using ROC curves. There were no significant differences between the study group and the control groups with respect to CRP levels. However, they were much higher PCT levels in patients with bacteremia. PCT showed greater discriminating ability compared to CRP, and proved to be a valuable tool for the detection of systemic bacterial infections in HIV infected patients.

To better guide dengue prevention and control efforts, the use of routinely collected data to develop risk maps is proposed. For this purpose, dengue experts identified indicators representative of entomological, epidemiological and demographic risks, hereafter called components, by using surveillance data aggregated at the level of Consejos Populares (CPs) in two municipalities of Cuba (Santiago de Cuba and Cienfuegos) in the period of 2010–2015. Two vulnerability models (one with equally weighted components and one with data-derived weights using Principal Component Analysis), and three incidence-based risk models were built to construct risk maps. The correlation between the two vulnerability models was high (tau > 0.89). The single-component and multicomponent incidence-based models were also highly correlated (tau ≥ 0.9). However, the agreement between the vulnerability- and the incidence-based risk maps was below 0.6 in the setting with a prolonged history of dengue transmission. This may suggest that an incidence-based approach does not fully reflect the complexity of vulnerability for future transmission. The small difference between single- and multicomponent incidence maps indicates that in a setting with a narrow availability of data, simpler models can be used. Nevertheless, the generalized linear mixed multicomponent model provides information of covariate-adjusted and spatially smoothed relative risks of disease transmission, which can be important for the prospective evaluation of an intervention strategy. In conclusion, caution is needed when interpreting risk maps, as the results vary depending on the importance given to the components involved in disease transmission. The multicomponent vulnerability mapping needs to be prospectively validated based on an intervention trial targeting high-risk areas.