For better understanding of the role of humoral immunity in ameliorating infections with rotavirus (RV) and Norwalk virus (NW), 305 Cuna Indians living on two isolated islands located off Panama's Carribean coast were surveyed daily for diarrhea over a seven-month period. Nine (8%) of 108 persons with a baseline RV antibody titer of greater than 1:4 developed RV infection compared with 70 (46%) of 151 persons with a baseline RV antibody titer of less than 1:4 (P less than .001). Thirty-eight (25%) of 151 persons of all ages with baseline RV antibody titer of less than 1:4 had at least one episode of RV diarrhea compared with 6 (6%) of 108 persons who had baseline RV antibody titers of greater than 1:4 (P less than .001). Thirty-two (47%) of 68 persons of all ages who had a baseline NW antibody titer of less than 1:100 developed NW infection compared with 30 (13%) of 237 persons with a baseline NW titer of greater than 1:100 (P less than .001). The high NW and RV infection rates and the excellent levels of protection provided by specific preexisting humoral antibody to these agents should promote activities aimed at developing vaccines for preventing these infections.
A case-control study of 667 patients with invasive squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix and 1,430 controls from four Latin American countries showed an age-adjusted relative risk (RR) of 1.2 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.0-1.4] for women who had ever smoked, with risk rising to 1.7 (95% CI, 0.8-3.6) for women who smoked greater than or equal to 30 cigarettes per day. The associations were practically eliminated after adjustment for the number of sexual partners and alcohol consumption, probably a surrogate for an unidentified life-style risk factor. Some excess risk persisted among women who smoked for extended periods (RR = 1.5 for greater than or equal to 40 yr), as well as those who began smoking at older ages (RR = 1.7 for greater than 30 yr), which suggests a late-stage effect. In addition, among women who tested positive for human papillomavirus (HPV) type 16 or 18 by filter in situ hybridization, there was an increased risk for women who had ever smoked and a dose-response relationship with the number of cigarettes smoked (adjusted RRs compared with HPV-negative nonsmokers = 5.0 for HPV-positive nonsmokers, 5.5 for less than 10 cigarettes/day, and 8.4 for greater than or equal to 10 cigarettes/day). In contrast, HPV-negative women had no increased risk associated with smoking. These results, from a high-incidence area where intensive smoking among women is still relatively rare, suggest that smoking has a limited effect on cervical cancer risk, possibly only among women with specific types of HPV.
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