Rolando Armijo

Two Poisoning Outbreaks in Puerto Rico from Salt Preserved Codfish.

IN THE FALL of 1957 Puerto Rican health authorities investigated a mass outbreak of food poisoning at the Ponce District Hospital and another at the institution for juvenile delinquents of San Juan. Both events were presumably caused by staphylococcal enterotoxins involving a common vehicle-salt-preserved codfish (Atlantic). The food in this form had not previously been incriminated in such intoxications. The incident at the hospital, involving a reported 303 patients in a total population of 457, occurred following lunch on September 5, 1957. There were no reports of acute gastroenteritis in the community outside the hospital. In the juvenile institution, the outbreak followed lunch on November 27, 1957, affecting 236 inmates out of a total of 320. Both outbreaks were first reported to local public health authorities, who in turn informed the bureau of communicable disease control in the Puerto Rico Department of Health.

Epidemiologic aspects of abortion in Chile.

THE INCIDENCE of abortion in Chile has increased during the last decades, and abortion is nlow a major health problem with implications in a nuimber of scientific fields. The majority of studies in the past were based on hospital data, which did not really reflect what happened in the community where the abortion originated. From an epidemiologic viewpoint, little was known about the number of and reasons for abortions, the most vulnerable groups in the female population, or the causes and other features describing the natural history of abortion. The methods of approach used in several studies in Chile are critically reviewed in some detail. Five major steps were use of available raw data and preliminary studies, studies of abortion as a hospital problem, community retrospective studies, prospective studies, and evaluation of conltrol measures.