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The umbilical cord is exposed to a great variety of injuries and events throughout the pregnancy whose origin may be either structural, mechanical, hamartomatous or infectious (1). Some of these alterations unquestionably interfere directly with the fetoplacental circulation either blocking it or creating severe haemorrhage as a result of laceration or tumor rupture. True tumors of the umbilical cord interfere directly with the fetal development. Two true tumors of the umbilical cord are described in this paper: chorangioma and teratoma. Chorangioma is a benign tumor, but has a very high rate of rate of perinatal mortality. Its frequency is rare, reporting in literature it presence of 1:3500 pregnancies. Our objective was to review world-wide literature and to report a case of fetal death by chorangioma of umbilical cord.

This paper reviews 20 years of experience and scientific contributions of the Cuban meningococcal BC vaccine (VA-MENGOC-BC®) obtained by the Finlay Institute in Havana, Cuba. The vaccine is the first of its type in the world that is safe, effective, and commercially available for preventing meningococcal disease caused by serogroup B meningococcus; it is also effective against serogroup C. VA-MENGOC-BC® has shown satisfactory results, with no serious adverse events, after application of approximately 55 million doses in some 15 countries. Also included is background information on meningococcal disease, as well as the main characteristics of VA-MENGOC-BC®, the strategy used for controlling meningococcal disease and its prevention in Cuba, and a summary of the main scientific results obtained in basic research, development, clinical evaluation, and post-marketing results (safety, efficacy-effectiveness, post-vaccination adverse events, etc.) in Cuba and elsewhere.