Guzmanstrong3958

Cuba has one of the fastest aging populations in Latin America and the Caribbean (20.4% of the population aged ≥60 years by 2018) and life expectancy has climbed to nearly 79 years. This demographic shift has prompted a number of initiatives to address the needs of older adults and promote active, healthy longevity. At the community level in Cienfuegos Province, an educational program was implemented designed to foster a more active role in society for older adults and improve their quality of life upon retirement, as well as to reinforce a positive culture of aging. The program ran from June 2010 to June 2018 in the Mental Health Department of the Dr Enrique Barnet Polyclinic in the Santa Isabel de las Lajas Municipality. Twenty-two groups were constituted of 330 older adults who were trained for 10 weeks in techniques of self-awareness, personal growth, develop-ment of social skills, use of social support networks, adoption of healthy lifestyles and formulation of retirement plans. Results were assessed for each group one year after program completion and the information summarized. Participants whose defi nitions of "older adult" and "retirement" were rooted in nondiscriminatory concepts increased from 53 to 303 and re-tirees not incorporated into active social/economic life decreased from 228 to 36. Didox mw At the outset, only 22% had coping mechanisms to manage their new role as retirees and 9% had a life plan for retirement. One year after fi nishing the program, 318 (96%) reported they were prepared to face this new stage in their lives and 294 (89%) had completed life plans; at the start, 116 (35%) were taking antidepressants and one year later, 103 of them had reduced or eliminated the drugs. The program enriched participants' culture of aging, as well as relationships with their families and their communities. KEYWORDS Retirement, aging, community health planning, Cuba.INTRODUCTION Human papillomaviruses and Chlamydia tracho-matis are the most frequent causes of sexually transmitted infec-tions. Although the association between some human papillomavirus genotypes and cervical cancer has been demonstrated and Chla-mydia trachomatis infection is the most common cause of female infertility, Cuba has no national baseline studies on the circulation and co-circulation of these agents, the synergistic effect of which may be a risk factor for occurrence and development of precancer-ous cervical lesions. Additionally, few local studies have examined risk factors for infection.OBJECTIVE Determine the frequency of infection by human papil-lomavirus and Chlamydia trachomatis and their association with sociodemographic, clinical and epidemiological variables in women seeking routine Pap smears or other medical services at the primary care level in Cuba.METHODS A cross-sectional study was conducted among 500 wom-en aged 16-67 years (100 from Havana, 200 from Villa Clara and 200 from Holg6, 68 and 89 was associated with the 7.9% (30/382) of women who had positive Pap tests. Infection fromChlamydia trachomatis was positive in 1% (5/500) of women, all aged ≤25 years. Coinfection by Chlamydia trachomatis and HPV was found in one woman infected with human papillomavirus genotype 61.CONCLUSIONS Frequency of human papillomavirus is high in the three Cuban provinces studied, with greater frequency of genotype 16 and other oncogenic high-risk types. For both agents, infection is more frequent in young women and adolescents. Positive Pap tests are fre-quently associated with HPV infection. Prevalence fi ndings from this study could be used as a baseline for future research or interventions. KEYWORDS Human papillomavirus, genotypes, Chlamydia tracho-matis, neoplasms, sexually transmitted diseases, cervix Uteri, infec-tion, real-time polymerase chain reaction, women, Cuba.Forty-three years after it was founded, with billions of dollars invested, the global biotech industry is still not positioned as a mature low-risk sector for the international investor com-munity. Despite the clear commercial success of a number of leading companies and overall growth of the industry's rev-enues, most biotech companies are not profi table and many fail to overcome the formidable barrier constituted by the high cost of the sector's research and development. However, over the last four years, visible signs of change have appeared, which could be harbingers of an approaching turning point in this trend.This article analyzes the historic background of the biotech in-dustry's business models and corporate structures, as well as their impact on the industry's fi nancial framework. It examines recent changes implemented by the sector's main actors-in-cluding young startups, venture capital funds and big pharma companies-to mitigate fi nancial risk associated with develop-ment of new biotechnology products.Finally, it discusses the challenges and opportunities that these tendencies entail for Cuban biotechnology development and proposes adoption of business policies more tolerant of the fi nancial risk inherent in this sector, as a condition for at-tracting venture capital. KEYWORDS Biotechnology, fund raising, risk management, entrepreneurship, Cuba."Our family wasn't rich, but we didn't want for anything," says Dr Palenzuela by way of introduction. In 1950s Cuba, her father drove a taxi and her mother was a homemaker, raising two daughters-one now an economist and the other a top pediatric cardiologist. In many ways, Dr Palenzuela's career rode the wave of social change that swept Cuba beginning in 1959. Like many others, time and again she stepped up to the plate, and in 1986, she became a founder of one of the Cuban health system's premier institutions the William Soler Children's Heart Center, a tertiary facility in Havana. There, to this day, she balances multiple responsibilities-as coordinator of the National Pediatric Cardiology Network, head of the Center's Quality Assurance Program and lead professor of the annual National Certificate Course in Pediatric Cardiology. MEDICC Review spoke with her between phone calls, meetings and patient consults.All original scientifi c articles appearing in MEDICC Review are subject to double-blind international peer review. MEDICC Review is indebted to the following colleagues for their collaboration as peer reviewers in 2019.