[Tuberculosis and HIV coinfection in Cuba]. / La coinfección de la tuberculosis y el VIH en Cuba.

The first 28 Cuban HIV-seropositive patients with bacteriologically confirmed tuberculosis in the period of 21 months between July, 1993, and March, 1995, were presented. The clinical characterization and the therapeutic response of the multidrug regimen considered by the National Program for Tuberculosis Control are stressed. The most frequent clinical form of presentation was the pulmonary one with 89.3% No lesions were found in the chest X-ray of 8 patients. The response to the multidrug treatment was satisfactory, which together with a group of procedures performed prevented the propagation of this disease among the HIV-seropositive patients and the population in general.

[Use of an indirect immunofluorescence probe for early detection of latent malaria]. / Utilidad de la prueba de inmunofluorescencia indirecta en la detección precoz de recidivas palúdicas.

We followed up the values of the titres of malaria antibodies by the indirect immunofluorescence (IFI) technique in 52 patients: 27 Cubans and 25 foreigners with malaria. All the subjects had previously been in endemic zones. The diagnosis of the disease was based upon the thick drop test. The prevailing species was Plasmodium falciparum. The IFI technique was used at the beginning of the treatment, weekly and after 3 months. Four patients had recurrences in the 3 first weeks of the follow-up, with increased levels of the antibody titres before parasitaemia appeared. Those titres decreased with the specific treatment. We propose that the patients with increasing antibody titres in spite of the negative results of the thick drop test be considered as having a risk of developing malaria.