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INTRODUCTION: Health systems in numerous countries around the world are suffering a serious burden as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of this situation, the follow-up of such chronic diseases as dementia may be at risk. Similarly, neuropsychiatric complications related to lockdown measures may also be neglected; Argentina's lockdown has been the longest implemented in Latin America. This study aims to determine the frequency of the different types of medical consultations for neurocognitive disorders and the predictors for requiring consultation since the beginning of the lockdown. METHODS: We performed a descriptive, observational, cross-sectional study based on data collected through an online survey. RESULTS: Data were collected on 324 participants, with 165 (50.9%) having had at least one medical consultation. Consultations were held by telephone in 109 cases (33.6%), by e-mail in 62 (19.1%), by video conference in 30 (9.3%), and at the emergency department in 23 (7.1%). Predictors of requiring consultation were Clinical Dementia Rating scores ≥1 (P<.001) and diagnosis of Alzheimer disease (P=.017). Higher Neuropsychiatric Inventory scores were found in the group of respondents who did require medical consultation (P<.001), but no significant differences were found between groups for Zarit Burden Interview scores. CONCLUSION: We identified a high prevalence of behavioural disorders and caregiver burden during lockdown. Nevertheless, only 50% of respondents had sought medical consultation (by telephone or email in 52.7% of cases). Care of people with dementia must be emphasised, guaranteeing follow-up of these patients.

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Oleander (Nerium oleander L.) shrubs presenting mottling, leaf tip and margin scorch, short internodes, defoliation, and branch dieback were observed at different localities in the Central Valley in Costa Rica. Severity of the symptoms ranged widely, and most plants showed both diseased and healthy branches. In severe cases, entire sections of the plant were defoliated. Symptoms resembled those described for oleander leaf scorch (OLS) caused by the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa in the United States (3). This bacterium has been reported in coffee and citrus plants in Costa Rica. Sixty plants from five different places were sampled and tested using ELISA (Agdia Inc., Elkhart, IN) against X. fastidiosa. Thirty-five plants showed absorbance mean value of duplicate wells greater than the mean of control wells plus three times the standard deviation, and therefore were considered positive. Thirty-three of the sixty samples were processed for an immunofluorescence assay modified from Carbajal et al. (1) with antibody to X. fastidiosa (Agdia Inc.). Thirteen samples showed fluorescent rod-shaped bacilli with morphology similar to those observed from a pure culture of X. fastidiosa obtained from coffee. Ten of these thirteen samples were positive by ELISA. DNA extracts (2) from three of the oleander plants with high ELISA absorbance values were tested by nested PCR with primer pair 272-1/272-2 followed by the pair 272-1 int/272-2 int (4). Two of the samples were positive for the bacterium and one of the PCR products was cloned and sequenced in both directions (GenBank Accession No. EU009615). The negative (PCR mix) and positive (pure culture of X. fastidiosa isolated from grapevine) controls for nested-PCR were indeed negative and positive, respectively. The BLAST program was used to compare the sequence to the nucleotide collection (nr/nt) and Microbe Assembled Genomes databases in GenBank. All matches corresponded to X. fastidiosa sequences. The sequence showed 97% similarity with strains Found-4 (coffee strain from Brazil) and Found-5 (citrus strain from Brazil) and 96% similarity with strain Ann-1 from oleander in California. On the basis of serological, microscopic, and molecular detection of X. fastidiosa from oleander exhibiting symptoms of OLS similar to those reported in the literature, this pathogen likely is causing the symptoms we observed in Costa Rica. References: (1) D. Carbajal et al. Curr. Microbiol. 49:372, 2004. (2) M. J. Green et al. Plant Dis. 83:482, 1999. (3) Q. Huang et al. Plant Dis. 88:1049, 2004. (4) M. R. Pooler and J. S. Hartung. Curr. Microbiol. 31:377, 1995.

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Citrus variegated chlorosis (CVC) is an important disease mainly of sweet orange (Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck) cultivars. It was first described in Brazil in the state of Sa Paulo in 1987 (4). The disease has spread to all Brazilian states that grow citrus and is affecting more than one-third of the orange trees grown in Brazil. CVC is caused by Xylella fastidiousa, a xylem-limited, gram-negative bacterium. During the last 4 years, symptoms including leaf interveinal chlorosis, stunting, canopy dieback, and hard and undersized fruits, similar to those caused by CVC (3), appeared in sweet orange trees used as shade plants for coffee plantations and as fence posts in Costa Rica. Necrotic lesions on the abaxial side of the leaves as reported in Brazil were rarely observed. Leaf petiole samples from 25 symptomatic sweet orange trees reacted positively with a X fastidiosa-specific antiserum (AGDIA Inc., Elkart, IN) in a double-sandwich antibody enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (DAS-ELISA). A fastidious, gram-negative bacterium identified as X. fastidiosa using DAS-ELISA was isolated on perwinkle wilt (PW) medium plates (1) from citrus stems showing CVC symptoms, but not from asymptomatic trees. The isolated colonies were circular and opalescent with diameters of 2 to 3 mm and were clearly visible within 6 to 7 days after streaking. Petiole sections from symptomatic plants observed with scanning electron microscopy showed rod-shaped bacteria with rippled cell walls tightly packed in xylem vessels, as described for X. fastidiosa previously (2), and with transmission electron microscopy, the bacteria were morphologically similar to those reported previously for CVC (2). To our knowledge, this is the first report of X. fastidiosa associated with citrus in Costa Rica. References: (1) M. J. Davis et al. Curr. Microbiol. 6:309, 1981. (2) J. S. Hartung et al. Phytopathology 84:591, 1994. (3) R. F. Lee et al. Summa Phytopathol. 19:123, 1993. (4) V. Rossetti et al. 1990, C.R. Acad. Sci. (Paris) 310:345-349.

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BACKGROUND: Serum lipid abnormalities in early childhood are risk factors for atherosclerosis. Lipid peroxidation might play an important role in this process, along with hypercholesterolemia. OBJECTIVE: To compare plasma concentrations of malondialdehyde (MDA) and vitamin E in two groups of children: one group with low density lipoproteins (LDL) concentrations > or = 130 mg/dL and another group with LDL concentrations < 130 mg/dL. METHODS: Cross-sectional study. Healthy schoolchildren from the city of Medellin selected by probabilistic sampling performed by staff at the Universidad de Antioquia in Colombia. SAMPLE: There were 134 subjects, aged 6 to 9 years old, divided into two groups: a group of 67 hypercholesterolemic children (LDL > or = 130 mg/dL) and a control group of 67 normocholesterolemic children (LDL < 130 mg/dL). RESULTS: Hypercholesterolemic children with a mean serum LDL concentration of 147.7 +/- 15.5 mg/dL and a total cholesterol concentration of 212 +/- 17 mg/dL had higher MDA plasma concentrations than the control group (0.18 +/- 0.1 6 microM; 0.08 +/- 0.06 microM, p < 0,0001, respectively). A negative correlation was observed between alpha-tocopherol/total lipids ratio and MDA values in children with hypercholesterolemia (r = -0.337 p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Lipid peroxidation was higher in hypercholesterolemic children than in the control group and was even higher when there was a deficit in the alpha-tocopherol/total lipids ratio. Hypercholesterolemia and lipid peroxidation are co-existing risk factors that are established during school age.

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(Co)variance components and genetic parameters were estimated for body weights of an elite Brahman herd under a designed, supervised management and genetic program, including strategic artificial insemination (AI). Restricted maximum likelihood methods were used with a univariate animal model for birth weight (BW) and a bivariate model for weaning weight (205-day weight, 205W) and 18-month weight (548-day weight, 548W). Models included random animal direct and maternal genetic effects, maternal permanent environmental effect (c2), and sex-year-month of birth-age of dam and genetic group (identified and unidentified paternity), as fixed effects. Analysis A1 included all calves and analysis A2 included only those with identified sires. Of the 8,066 calves born, 36 were progeny of AI, 11 from single sire and 53 from multi-sire herds. They were born from 1985 to 1998, from 2559 dams and 146 sires (78 identified). Estimates of direct, maternal and total heritabilities from A1 for BW, 205W and 548W were: 0.23, 0.07 and 0.30; 0.08, 0.14 and 0.16; 0.16, 0.04 and 0.28, respectively. Corresponding estimates of direct maternal genetic correlations were 0.22, 0.07 and 0.86, and c2 estimates were 0.04, 0.14 and 0.04, respectively. Estimates of direct and maternal genetic, and permanent environmental correlations between 205W and 548W were: 0.66, 0.70 and 1.00. Variances and genetic parameters from A1 and A2 were, in general, very similar. Estimates of phenotypic, and direct and maternal genetic trends per year from A1 were: 0.393, 0.004 and 0.003 kg (BW), 3.367, 0.142 and 0.115 kg (205W), 1.813, 0.263 and 0.095 kg (548W). Estimates of direct and maternal genetic trends from A2 were: 0.033 and -0.002 kg (BW); 0.186 and 0.276 kg (205W); 0.471 and 0.136 kg (548W). The modern selection methods that have been used recently should be continued, with emphasis on the improvement of cow efficiency for sustainable beef production on floodable savanna combined with improved pasture

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Coffee ringspot virus (CoRSV) (family Rhabdoviridae) is transmitted by Brevipalpus phoenicis (Geijskes) (Acari: Tenuipalpidae). Coffee ringspot disease was first reported in coffee plants from Brazil in 1939 (1). In August 2000, severe symptoms of concentric ringspots and "oak leaf" patterns on coffee leaves (Coffea arabica L. cv. Catuai) were observed during field inspections conducted in two areas of San Gabriel de Desamparados, Costa Rica. The disease caused premature fruit and leaf drop in the affected plants. Some areas within the ringspot lesions remained green on senescent leaves. Because CoRSV particles remain restricted to lesion areas (1), this virus has not been purified, and antiserum for virus detection is not available. Therefore, leaves with symptoms were collected and examined by transmission electron microscopy. In ultrathin sections of symptomatic leaves, arrays of rhabdovirus-like particles were associated with the nucleus as described for CoRSV (2). Healthy tissues did not contain similar arrays of bacilliform and bullet-shaped particles. Twenty mites collected from the infected plants at the same locations and time were slide-mounted and identified as B. phoenicis. High populations of this mite were also observed infesting plants of Cajanus cajan L. that were intercropped with coffee at the same location. Sweet orange trees growing in the same fields as shade for the coffee did not show symptoms of citrus leprosis, a disease caused by another Brevipalpus-transmitted virus that was recently reported in Panama (3). To our knowledge, this is the first report of a virus similar to CoRSV in Costa Rica. The spread of this virus, presumably CoRSV, could seriously affect the coffee industry throughout Central America by increasing production costs. It may be necessary to apply one or more foliar acaricides to effectively control the mite vector. References: (1) A. Bitancourt. O. Biol. 5:33, 1939. (2) C. M. Chagas et al. Phytopathol. Z. 102:100, 1981. (3) F. S. Dominguez et al. Plant Dis. 85:228, 2001.

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In 1995, severe symptoms were observed on 'Caturra' and 'Catuaí' coffee (Coffea arabica L.) varieties in farms in the southern part of the Central Valley in Costa Rica. Symptoms were reduced leaf size, malformation of leaves, curling of leaf edges, shortening of internodes, and severe leaf chlorotic mosaic, which sometimes became necrotic. Abortion of flowers and young beans was also observed, with a reduction in yield. Plants also showed irregular growth with an atypical curling appearance that gave rise to the Spanish name "crespera." Ten and three healthy plants were inoculated by grafting in the greenhouse, using infected and healthy budwoods, respectively. Approximately 6 months after inoculation, 3 of 10 grafted plants with infected budwoods showed symptoms of leaf chlorosis, curling, and malformation of leaves and bunched new flushes. Samples of 39 symptomatic plants collected from the field and samples of 3 healthy plants maintained in the greenhouse were tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). All (100%) analyzed symptomatic samples were positive for X. fastidiosa, and all healthy controls were negative. The symptoms observed in Costa Rica are different from those described for coffee leaf scorch in Brazil (1,2), but the climatological conditions and soil type present in Costa Rica are also very different from the areas where X. fastidiosa occurs in Brazil. Leafhoppers were collected randomly in one of the most affected regions. Graphocephala permagna and Erythrogonia sonora were the most frequent insect species found associated with coffee. In ELISA, 34.5% (10 of 29) and 23.8% (5 of 21) of the collected specimens belonging to G. permagna and E. sonora, respectively, tested positive for X. fastidiosa. These positive ELISAs do not necessarily mean that the insect is a vector. The results presented here extend the known geographic distribution of X. fastidiosa. To our knowledge, this is the first report of X. fastidiosa in coffee in Costa Rica. References: (1) M. J. G. Beretta et al. Plant Dis. 80:821, 1996. (2) de Lima et al. Plant Dis. 82:94, 1998.

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AIDS: AIDS is a complex healthcare challenge in Mexico. Although sero-prevalence rates vary widely across Latin America, the number of new infections in Mexico started at a slow rate, began to increase exponentially, and finally started leveling off. The annual rates of AIDS incidence and HIV prevalence in men and women are presented. The Mexican government established the National Council for Prevention and Control of AIDS (CONASIDA), and it has become the official government agency to deal with the challenges of the HIV epidemic. The purposes, goals, and accomplishments of CONASIDA are described.^ieng

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A restrospective study was performed on patients presenting with status asthmaticus and admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the Provincial Clinical and Surgical Teaching hospital, Pinar del Río, within a 5-year period and who underwent mechanical ventilation representing 32.65% of the overall number of admissions in the ICU. Fifty seven percent of the patients were women with an average age of 48 years. The mean intubation time was 60 hours. At admission, the patient's clinical condition was assessed, as well as the cause for intubation and ventilatory parameters that are being used up to date. Complications and the mortality rate which increased to 9.38% were also analyzed. All results were compared to the ones from other authors, as well as from the national and international literature.

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