475 research outputs found

    The defence of health : the debates on health reform in 1970s Spain

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    This paper analyses the discourses that addressed healthcare reform projects discussed in Spain during the 1970s, before the death of the dictator General Franco, and up to the declaration of healthcare as a right in the Spanish Constitution of 1978. The Spanish health system, which developed from the Compulsory Sickness Insurance launched in 1944, focused only on disease and made no provision for preventive activities. This  shortcoming was one of the main aspects that required reform in the 1970s. We analyse the characteristics of the proposals to replace a treatment-centred health system with a new one based on a more holistic view and the defence of health. To contextualise these proposals, we review the development of the Francoist health system and regulations and plans that attempted to reform it before the death of Franco. The most interesting Spanish health system reform projects were written at the end of Francoism and the beginning of the Democratic Transition and were mainly drafted by medical doctors committed to the illegal left-wing parties. All shared the aim of universal healthcare financed by the State and the goal of placing the protection of health at the core of the health system by integrating preventive medicine and healthcare. Some proposals encouraged the study of social determinants of health and disease and emphasised the role of health education. Others were more concerned with the re-organisation of healthcare through planning and decentralisation, retaining the hospital for the treatment of diseases as the main goal

    The defence of health : the debates on health reform in 1970s Spain

    Get PDF
    This paper analyses the discourses that addressed healthcare reform projects discussed in Spain during the 1970s, before the death of the dictator General Franco, and up to the declaration of healthcare as a right in the Spanish Constitution of 1978. The Spanish health system, which developed from the Compulsory Sickness Insurance launched in 1944, focused only on disease and made no provision for preventive activities. This shortcoming was one of the main aspects that required reform in the 1970s. We analyse the characteristics of the proposals to replace a treatment-centred health system with a new one based on a more holistic view and the defence of health. To contextualise these proposals, we review the development of the Francoist health system and regulations and plans that attempted to reform it before the death of Franco. The most interesting Spanish health system reform projects were written at the end of Francoism and the beginning of the Democratic Transition and were mainly drafted by medical doctors committed to the illegal left-wing parties. All shared the aim of universal healthcare financed by the State and the goal of placing the protection of health at the core of the health system by integrating preventive medicine and healthcare. Some proposals encouraged the study of social determinants of health and disease and emphasised the role of health education. Others were more concerned with the re-organisation of healthcare through planning and decentralisation, retaining the hospital for the treatment of diseases as the main goal

    Educación, comunicación y salud: Perspectivas desde las ciencias humanas y sociales

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    El propósito de este libro es aportar elementos a la reflexión sobre comunicación, educación y salud desde las ciencias humanas y sociales; Dicha reflexión resulta vital, ahora más que nunca, teniendo en cuenta la enorme expansión de medios de comunicación como la televisión o los basados en las tecnologías 2.0, que permiten que el acceso a los conocimientos sobre salud sea ubicuo. El origen del presente libro es el encuentro que se celebró, en septiembre de 2015, en la Escuela de Salud Pública de Menorca sobre «Educación, promoción de la salud y comunicación. Perspectivas desde la historia y las ciencias sociales». Los diferentes capítulos provienen de la labor de investigación de diversas disciplinas: Antropología Social, Communication Studies, Historia de la Educación e Historia de la Medicina, lo que permite tener una visión amplia y variada de los complejos factores que intervienen en los procesos de educación y comunicación sobre salud

    Educación sanitaria y antropología médica en Europa: Los casos de Italia y España = Medical education and medical anthropology in Europe: The cases of Italy and Spain

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    El objetivo de este artículo es comparar el desarrollo de la educación sanitaria en Italia y España desde el punto de vista del papel jugado por la antropología médica en ambos países, en un contexto marcado por los cambios en el concepto de educación sanitaria que propugnaron los organismos técnicos de las Naciones Unidas, en especial la Organización Mundial de la Salud y la Unesco, durante la segunda mitad del siglo XX. A pesar de sus similitudes como países, Italia y España tuvieron evoluciones políticas muy diferentes durante el siglo pasado, por tanto, es interesante comparar ambos casos y la influencia que tuvieron las ciencias sociales en las iniciativas de educación sanitaria. Para valorar el papel de la antropología médica, mediante el uso de fuentes orales, hemos reconstruido la puesta en marcha, en 1958, y el desarrollo del Centro Sperimentale per l’Educazione Sanitaria (Perugia, Italia), que estuvo en la vanguardia de la educación sanitaria en Europa hasta los años noventa. Tras una breve descripción de las escasas iniciativas sobre educación sanitaria en la España de la dictadura, evaluamos la influencia de los antropólogos perusinos en la educación para la salud española durante la transición democrática

    A novel HIV vaccine adjuvanted by IC31 induces robust and persistent humoral and cellular immunity.

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    The HIV vaccine strategy that, to date, generated immune protection consisted of a prime-boost regimen using a canarypox vector and an HIV envelope protein with alum, as shown in the RV144 trial. Since the efficacy was weak, and previous HIV vaccine trials designed to generate antibody responses failed, we hypothesized that generation of T cell responses would result in improved protection. Thus, we tested the immunogenicity of a similar envelope-based vaccine using a mouse model, with two modifications: a clade C CN54gp140 HIV envelope protein was adjuvanted by the TLR9 agonist IC31®, and the viral vector was the vaccinia strain NYVAC-CN54 expressing HIV envelope gp120. The use of IC31® facilitated immunoglobulin isotype switching, leading to the production of Env-specific IgG2a, as compared to protein with alum alone. Boosting with NYVAC-CN54 resulted in the generation of more robust Th1 T cell responses. Moreover, gp140 prime with IC31® and alum followed by NYVAC-CN54 boost resulted in the formation and persistence of central and effector memory populations in the spleen and an effector memory population in the gut. Our data suggest that this regimen is promising and could improve the protection rate by eliciting strong and long-lasting humoral and cellular immune responses

    Educación sanitaria y antropología médica en Europa: los casos de Italia y España

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    The aim of this article is to compare the development of health education in Italy and Spain from the point of view of the role played by medical anthropology in both countries. The context is provided by the changes in the concept of health education advocated by the UN technical agencies, especially the World Health Organization and Unesco, during the second half of the twentieth century. Despite their many similarities, Italy and Spain underwent different political evolutions over the last century. Therefore, it is interesting to compare both cases and the influence the social sciences had in health education initiatives. In order to assess the role of medical anthropology, the 1958 launch and the development of the Centro Sperimentale per l’Educazione Sanitaria (Perugia, Italy), which was at the forefront of health education in Europe until the 1990s, was reconstructed through oral sources. After a brief description of the scant initiatives regarding health education existing in the Spain of the dictatorship, the influence of the Perusine anthropologists on Spanish health education during the democratic transition is evaluated.El objetivo de este artículo es comparar el desarrollo de la educación sanitaria en Italia y España desde el punto de vista del papel jugado por la antropología médica en ambos países, en un contexto marcado por los cambios en el concepto de educación sanitaria que propugnaron los organismos técnicos de las Naciones Unidas, en especial la Organización Mundial de la Salud y la Unesco, durante la segunda mitad del siglo XX. A pesar de sus similitudes como países, Italia y España tuvieron evoluciones políticas muy diferentes durante el siglo pasado, por tanto, es interesante comparar ambos casos y la influencia que tuvieron las ciencias sociales en las iniciativas de educación sanitaria. Para valorar el papel de la antropología médica, mediante el uso de fuentes orales, hemos reconstruido la puesta en marcha, en 1958, y el desarrollo del Centro Sperimentale per l’Educazione Sanitaria (Perugia, Italia), que estuvo en la vanguardia de la educación sanitaria en Europa hasta los años noventa. Tras una breve descripción de las escasas iniciativas sobre educación sanitaria en la España de la dictadura, evaluamos la influencia de los antropólogos perusinos en la educación para la salud española durante la transición democrática

    A molecular approach to drought-induced reduction in leaf CO2 exchange in drought-resistant Quercus ilex

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    Drought-induced reduction of leaf gas exchange entails a complex regulation of the plant leaf metabolism. We used a combined molecular and physiological approach to understand leaf photosynthetic and respiratory responses of 2-year-old Quercus ilex seedlings to drought. Mild drought stress resulted in glucose accumulation while net photosynthetic CO2 uptake (Pn) remained unchanged, suggesting a role of glucose in stress signaling and/or osmoregulation. Simple sugars and sugar alcohols increased throughout moderate-to-very severe drought stress conditions, in parallel to a progressive decline in Pn and the quantum efficiency of photosystem II; by contrast, minor changes occurred in respiration rates until drought stress was very severe. At very severe drought stress, 2-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase complex gene expression significantly decreased, and the abundance of most amino acids dramatically increased, especially that of proline and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) suggesting enhanced protection against oxidative damage and a reorganization of the tricarboxylic cycle acid cycle via the GABA shunt. Altogether, our results point to Q. ilex drought tolerance being linked to signaling and osmoregulation by hexoses during early stages of drought stress, and enhanced protection against oxidative damage by polyols and amino acids under severe drought stress.Funding was provided by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (AGL2012-35580 and AGL2015-66925-R MINECO/FEDER, UE). C. A. gratefully acknowledges support from FCT Investigator Programme (IF/00376/2012/CP0165/CT0003) by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal, ITQB NOVA R&D GREEN-it ‘Bioresources for sustainability’ (UID/Multi/04551/2013), and LabMet Metabolomics Facility at CTBE (Campinas, Brazil) for GC-TOF-MS metabolite profiling services. A. M. R. acknowledges FCT for the PhD fellowship (PD/BD/114417/2016) and the ITQB NOVA International PhD Programme ‘Plants for Life’ (PD/00035/2013). O. K. A. acknowledges the support of the Australian Research Council (CE140100008). P. P. acknowledges funding from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under REA grant agreement n∘ PIEF-GA-2013-627761

    Roles for Treg expansion and HMGB1 signaling through the TLR1-2-6 axis in determining the magnitude of the antigen-specific immune response to MVA85A

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    © 2013 Matsumiya et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are creditedA better understanding of the relationships between vaccine, immunogenicity and protection from disease would greatly facilitate vaccine development. Modified vaccinia virus Ankara expressing antigen 85A (MVA85A) is a novel tuberculosis vaccine candidate designed to enhance responses induced by BCG. Antigen-specific interferon-γ (IFN-γ) production is greatly enhanced by MVA85A, however the variability between healthy individuals is extensive. In this study we have sought to characterize the early changes in gene expression in humans following vaccination with MVA85A and relate these to long-term immunogenicity. Two days post-vaccination, MVA85A induces a strong interferon and inflammatory response. Separating volunteers into high and low responders on the basis of T cell responses to 85A peptides measured during the trial, an expansion of circulating CD4+ CD25+ Foxp3+ cells is seen in low but not high responders. Additionally, high levels of Toll-like Receptor (TLR) 1 on day of vaccination are associated with an increased response to antigen 85A. In a classification model, combined expression levels of TLR1, TICAM2 and CD14 on day of vaccination and CTLA4 and IL2Rα two days post-vaccination can classify high and low responders with over 80% accuracy. Furthermore, administering MVA85A in mice with anti-TLR2 antibodies may abrogate high responses, and neutralising antibodies to TLRs 1, 2 or 6 or HMGB1 decrease CXCL2 production during in vitro stimulation with MVA85A. HMGB1 is released into the supernatant following atimulation with MVA85A and we propose this signal may be the trigger activating the TLR pathway. This study suggests an important role for an endogenous ligand in innate sensing of MVA and demonstrates the importance of pattern recognition receptors and regulatory T cell responses in determining the magnitude of the antigen specific immune response to vaccination with MVA85A in humans.This work was funded by the Wellcome Trust. MM has a Wellcome Trust PhD studentship and HM is a Wellcome Trust Senior Fello
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