[Histoplasmin reactivity in poultry farm workers in the province of Ciego de Avila, Cuba]. / Reactividad a la histoplasmina en trabajadores de granjas avícolas en la provincia de Ciego de Avila, Cuba.

An epidemiological survey with histoplasmin skin test was performed in 392 poultry farmers and 265 workers considered without occupational risk of exposition to Histoplasma capsulatum, etiologic agent of histoplasmosis. The results were positive in 28.8% and 13.2% in both groups respectively. Statistically, there was a significant difference between the two groups, so it can be considered that poultry farmers are in occupational risk of infection with H. capsulatum. In the first group, the workers which are more closely related with chicken manure showed a higher reactivity to histoplasmin skin test. The working time in the farms seems to influence in the test reactivity too.

[Histoplasmosis, serologic follow-up]. / Histoplasmosis. Seguimiento serólogico.

This paper reports the positive results obtained in the sera of 70 patients with histoplasmosis, the clinical presentation of the disease, and the possibilities for an appropriate follow-up of the clinical course of these patients by means of titers of the sera taken during the persistence of the signs and symptoms of the disease and following its resolution. The most frequent clinical presentation was acute pulmonary disease and the single m precipitation band was found in a higher number of sera than the association of h and m bands. The authors report a case diagnosed as acute pulmonary histoplasmosis, that 9 months after a clinically and serologically negative continuum showed again precipitation bands and Histoplasma capsulatum was isolated from his oral mucosa lesions. The significance of serologic follow-up in patients with histoplasmosis until their total negativization and the feasibility of this follow-up by means of the titering of sera by the counterimmune electrophoresis technique.