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Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical

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2014

Trypanosoma cruzi strain Tcl is associated with chronic Chagas disease in the Brazilian Amazon

The aim of this study was to characterize Trypanosoma cruzi in patients with chronic Chagas disease in the State of Amazonas, Brazil.
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Routine screening of harmful microorganisms in beach sands: implications to public health

Beaches worldwide provide recreational opportunities to hundreds of millions of people and serve as important components of coastal economies. Beach water is often monitored for microbiological quality to detect the presence of indicators of human sewage contamination so as to prevent public health outbreaks associated with water contact
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Negotiating Markets for Health: An Exploration of Physicians’ Engagement in Dual Practice in Three African Capital Cities

Scarce evidence exists on the features, determinants and implications of physicians’ dual practice, especially in resource-poor settings. This study considered dual practice patterns in three African cities and the respective markets for physician services, with the objective of understanding the influence of local determinants on the practice.
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Why do some physicians in portuguese-speaking african countries work exclusively for the private sector? Findings from a mixed-methods study

Despite the growing interest in the private health sector in low- and middle-income countries, little is known about physicians working outside the public sector. The present work adopts a mixed-methods approach to explore characteristics, working patterns, choices, and motivations of the physicians working exclusively for the private sector in the capital cities of Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, and Mozambique.
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On the margins of aid orthodoxy: The Brazil-Mozambique collaboration to produce essential medicines in Africa

This paper looks into practicalities and evolution of this collaboration to illustrate the characteristics of Brazilian development cooperation in health, with the aim of drawing lessons for the wider debate on aid and local production of pharmaceuticals in Africa.
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Mosquito control might not bolster imperfect dengue vaccines

The most recent dengue vaccine trial data from Asia claims 40–70% efficacy in children aged 2–14 years. This is a substantial advance in dengue prevention but clearly falls short of the levels of protection required for a standalone intervention. The dengue vaccine initiative and other consortia have emphasised the benefits of integrating vaccines with mosquito control measures, which infers that vector control can bolster the effect of imperfect vaccines.
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Anopheles gambiae eicosanoids modulate Plasmodium berghei survival from oocyst to salivary gland invasion

Eicosanoids affect the immunity of several pathogen/insect models, but their role on the Anopheles gambiae response to Plasmodium is still unknown. Plasmodium berghei-infected mosquitoes were injected with an eicosanoid biosynthesis inhibitor, indomethacin (IN), or a substrate, arachidonic acid (AA), at day 7 or day 12 post-infection (p.i.).
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Trends and predictors of transmitted drug resistance (TDR) and clusters with TDR in a local Belgian HIV-1 epidemic

We aimed to study epidemic trends and predictors for transmitted drug resistance (TDR) in our region, its clinical impact and its association with transmission clusters. We included 778 patients from the AIDS Reference Center in Leuven (Belgium) diagnosed from 1998 to 2012. Resistance testing was performed using population-based sequencing and TDR was estimated using the WHO-2009 surveillance list.
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Unraveling Mycobacterium tuberculosis genomic diversity and evolution in Lisbon, Portugal, a highly drug resistant setting

Multidrug- (MDR) and extensively drug resistant (XDR) tuberculosis (TB) presents a challenge to disease control and elimination goals. In Lisbon, Portugal, specific and successful XDR-TB strains have been found in circulation for almost two decades.
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