Medicinas tradicionales andinas y su despenalización: entrevista con Walter Álvarez Quispe / Decriminalizing traditional Andean medicine: an interview with Walter Álvarez Quispe

Walter Álvarez Quispe, terapeuta kallawaya y biomédico especializado en cirugía general y ginecología, presenta la lucha de los terapeutas tradicionales y alternativos por la depenalización de estos sistemas médicos andinos realizada entre 1960 y 1990. Bolivia se torna el primer país en América Latina y el Caribe en despenalizar la medicina tradicional antes de los planteamientos de la Conferencia Internacional sobre Atención Primaria de Salud (Alma-Ata, 1978). Los datos aportados por el entrevistado aseguran que los logros alcanzados, principalmente por los kallawayas, responden a un proyecto propio y autónomo. Estas conquistas no se deben a las políticas oficiales de interculturalidad en salud, aunque busquen atribuirse para sí los logros alcanzados.

Walter Álvarez Quispe, a Kallawaya healer and biomedical practitioner specializing in general surgery and gynecology, presents the struggle of traditional and alternative healers to get their Andean medical systems depenalized between 1960 and 1990. Bolivia was the first country in Latin America and the Caribbean to decriminalize traditional medicine before the proposals of the International Conference on Primary Health Care (Alma-Ata, 1978). The data provided by the interviewee show that the successes achieved, mainly by the Kallawayas, stem from their own independent initiative. These victories are not the result of official policies of interculturality in healthcare, although the successes achieved tend to be ascribed to them.

Alteraciones enzimáticas séricas en ratas tratadas con bisulfito de sodio / Changes in serum enzymes in rats treated with sodium bisulfite

Inorganic sulphites are chemical compounds with antioxidative, antibacterial and antimycotic properties diffusely employed in agro-food and pharmaceutical industries. In spite of their continuous use there still are many questions regarding their safety, and their possible influence in several nutrients and enzymatic systems, as according to reports in the literature cited. In this study it is determined the effect of increasing doses of sodium bisulphite, 10 to 50 mg/kg/day, injected intramuscularly during seven days on the activity of the following serum enzymes: phosphohexoseisomerase (PHI), gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase (gamma-GT), cholinesterase (CHE), arginase, acid maltase (AM), alkaline phosphatase (AIP), lactic dehydrogenase (LDH), transaminases (GOT and GPT) and 5'-nucleotidase (5'-N) on male Wistar rats (treated groups). The results indicate that in rats treated with sodium bisulphite there is a significant increase (p < 0.05) in the activity of PHI, gamma-GT, arginase, AIP, GOT, GPT and 5'-N as well as an equally significant decrease (p < 0.05) in the activity of LDH, AM and CHE; these variations are proportional to the doses of the compound applied. These findings indicate there is cellular damage to rat liver, kidney orothers organs as a result of bisulphite injected or by its metabolic derivatives. It is suggested that measurements of serum levels of LDH, AM and CHE are particularly helpful in the clinical assessment of pathologies caused by sulfites in allergology.

Efeito do ácido cítrico e metabissulfito de sódio na qualidade do camaräo mantido em gelo de refrigeraçäo / Effect of citric acid and sodium metabisulphite on iced shrimp quality

Foi estudada a possibilidade do uso de um sistema conservante, constituido de ácido cítrico e metabissulfito de sódio, para a preservaçäo da qualidade do camaräo-sete-barbas, mantido em gelo. Os resultados indicam que é viável, tecnicamente, a utilizaçäo do referido sistema na preservaçäo da qualidade do camaräo sete-barbas inteiro e descabeçado, por um período de estocagem em gelo de 15 dias, sem problemas de enegrecimento acentuado, bem como de elevados teores residuais de SO2