Human papillomavirus, Epstein-Barr virus, and cervical carcinoma in Greenland

Rendering Inuit cancer "visible": Geography, pathology, and nosology in Arctic cancer research

In August of 1977, Australian pathologist David W. Buntine delivered a presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australia in Melbourne, Victoria. In this presentation, he used the diagnostic category of "Eskimoma," to describe a unique set of salivary gland tumors he had observed over the past five years within Winnipeg's Health Sciences Center. Only found amongst Inuit patients, these tumors were said to have unique histological, clinical, and epidemiological features and were unlike any other disease category that had ever been encountered before. To understand where this nosological category came from, and its long-term impact, this paper traces the historical trajectory of the "Eskimoma." In addition to discussing the methods and infrastructures that were essential to making the idea of Inuit cancer "visible," to the pathologist, the epidemiologist, and to society at large, this paper discusses how Inuit tissue samples obtained, stored, and analyzed in Winnipeg, Manitoba, came to be codified into a new, racially based disease category - one that has guided Canadian and international understandings of circumpolar cancer trends and shaped northern healthcare service delivery for the past sixty years.

Prevalence of Epstein-Barr virus and human papillomavirus in cervical samples from women attending an STD-clinic

A group of 91 women attending the STD-clinic, Department of Dermatovenereology, Sahlgrenska Hospital, Gothenburg, were screened for EBV DNA and HPV DNA of the cervix with the PCR-technique. Presence of EBV DNA was demonstrated in 35 (38%) women and HPV DNA in 30 (33%) women. Fourteen (15%) women had both EBV DNA and HPV DNA present. Without the colposcope 20 of these women had macroscopic signs of HPV infection on the vulva and/or vagina and 71 had no signs of infection. Presence of EBV DNA was not correlated to clinical signs of HPV infection.