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Ultraviolet UV-C radiation has been used as a germicidal method for more than 100 years due to its effectiveness in the control of microorganisms. In some regions of Colombia, there are health problems because of the use of untreated water, which can contaminate food and kitchen utensils, putting human health at risk. The main purpose of this study was to design and construct a low-cost ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) device for the inactivation of the bacterial strain Staphylococcus aureus in kitchen utensils. The UVGI device is a chamber built in acrylic, consisting of an 8-watt ultraviolet lamp with a peak emission wavelength of 253.7 nm. The simulation of the ultraviolet lamp control was carried out through Proteus 8, and the control system was implemented using the Arduino UNO R3 ATmega328P. It was found that the optimal radiation doses were 34.44, 311.8 and 603.6 J/cm² to effectively inactivate the studied bacterium for more than 18 h. The constructed UVGI device is a viable solution to a public health problem that exists in some rural areas of Colombia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social Determination of Health (SDH)/Collective Health is a Latin American framework that sees the Marxist core concept of social class as fundamental for understanding health inequalities. In contrast to social stratification approaches, Marxist proposals seek to understand health as part of the historical transformations of capitalism's mode of production. In this article we aim to analyze the relationship between social class and health inequalities using data from the IV Oral Health National Study in Colombia. We conducted hierarchical cluster analyses to classify the population in five class positions and three living conditions clusters, which reflect how the spheres of production and social reproduction relate to social classes in Colombia. To measure oral health we use DMFT, as well as care and treatment needs indexes. Through variance analysis models we found that people from more exploited class positions and worse living conditions have more active disease and higher treatment needs. Despite technical and conceptual challenges, we conclude that a social class analytical framework can be operationalised via the interrelated spheres of production and social reproduction, which sheds light on the relationship between health inequalities and the class structure of the capitalist system.

Introduction: As button batteries have become worldwide used, there have been an increase in its ingest cases, mostly in pediatric population. Also, it is in this group where most complications and death cases are presented according to latest publications. In Colombia there are not public programs that pursuit to prevent the ingestion of this kind of foreign body. We report our experience in the management of these patients in a pediatric hospital., Materials and Methods: We performed a retrospective review of cases where patients attend to the emergency room for suspected foreign body ingestion between January 2007 and December 2015. In a total of 46 cases the foreign body was a battery., Results: 85% where under 5 years old. 68% present symptoms. The most frequent location and with the worst complications was the esophagus. All patients that required ICU in the postoperative period where also in that group. There was one case of mortality., Discussion: There must be an education plan for health personal and general population regarding the danger that represent button batteries at the reach of children, and the urgency that implies its attention once an ingestion has occurred. It is important to establish protocols in each institution for an appropriate and urgent extraction.

Background: Febrile neutropenia (FN) is a significant adverse effect post-chemotherapy due to its high morbidity and mortality. There are few studies in our country with these kind of patients., Objective: To describe the characteristics and mortality in patients with hematologic neoplasms who developed FN post-chemotherapy., Methodology: A descriptive case series in patients with hematologic neoplasms who developed FN post-chemotherapy in Hospital Pablo Tobón Uribe., Results: 101 episodes of FN in 43 patients. The median age was 44 years. 63.5% of patients had no apparent clinical focus of infection at admission, 11.8% had soft tissue compromise and 8.9% urinary tract infection. Bacteremia was documented in 41.5% and catheter-associated bacteremia in 3.9%. The most common organisms were Escherichia coli 43.4%, Klebsiella pneumoniae 17.3% and Staphylococcus aureus 8.6%. Of those isolated in blood 84.7% were Gram negative rods and 15.2% were Gram positive bacteria. Piperacillin/tazobactam was the most common empirically prescribed antibiotic (81.1%). Mortality of FN episodes occurred in 8 (7.92%) patients, 5 (62.5%) attributable to infection and 3 (37.5%) due to progression of hematologic malignancy with a resolution of FN., Conclusions: In our case series of FN the microbiological characteristics differed significantly from developed countries, but a similar mortality rate per episode was observed.

Introduction: Linkage analyses provide strong evidence of how genetic factors influence epilepsy, due to the fact that they involve the determination of the cosegregation of specific marker alleles with epilepsy within families., Aims: Our aim was to determine whether there was some kind of propensity to develop generalised idiopathic epilepsy (GIE) in the 15q22.1-q25.1 region in an extended multigenerational family from the Paisa de Antioquia community, which is a genetic isolate located in Colombia that segregates for GIE and has a strong capacity to detect linkage., Patients and Methods: We selected a family containing a number of individuals suffering from epilepsy who visited the Antioquia Neurological Institute. Each affected individual had to have been diagnosed by a neurologist as suffering from non-myoclonic idiopathic epilepsy or from partial idiopathic epilepsy. All patients suspected of suffering from idiopathic epilepsy were submitted to video monitoring in order to characterise seizures electroencephalographically., Results: Of the 106 individuals in this family who were included in the family tree, 76 were genotyped; 15 of them suffered from generalised clonic tonic seizures and six were considered as being possibly affected. Lod score results were significantly negative for all the markers in relation to each of the models under consideration., Conclusions: The possibility of the genes that code for the a-3, a-5 and b-4 subunits of the neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (CHRNA3, CHRNA5 and CHRNB4) situated in the 15q region being responsible for the familial aggregation of GIE in this family, as has been suggested in previous studies in other families, was ruled out.

Introduction: Linkage analyses enable us to identify the loci that bestow susceptibility to certain diseases which are assumed to have a genetic aetiology by determining the cosegregation of alleles of specific markers within families., Aims: The aim of this study was to determine whether there is generalised idiopathic epilepsy (GIE) susceptibility in the 8q22.1 -q24.23, 16p13.3 and 21q22.3 regions within an extended multigenerational family belonging to the Paisa community in Antioquia, a genetic isolate located in Colombia segregating for GIE with a strong capacity for detecting linkage., Patients and Methods: A family with a number of individuals affected by idiopathic epilepsy who visited the Instituto Neurológico de Antioquia was selected for study. An affected individual was required to have been diagnosed by a neurologist as suffering from non-myoclonic idiopathic epilepsy or partial idiopathic epilepsy. All patients suspected of suffering from idiopathic epilepsy were submitted to video monitoring in order to characterise the seizures electroencephalographically., Results: Of the 106 individuals in this family that were included in the family tree, 76 were genotyped, 15 of whom were affected by generalised clonic tonic seizures and six were considered to be possibly affected. Results of the lod score were significantly negative for all the markers in relation to each model that was considered., Conclusions: The possibility of the genes located in the 8q22.1 -q24.23, 16p13.3 and 21q22.3 regions being responsible for the familial aggregation of GIE in this family was ruled out, which is in accordance with claims made in previous studies conducted on other families.