Maria Eliane Bezerra de Melo

Estudos bacteriológicos e sorológicos de um surto de peste no Estado da Paraíba, Brasil

During a plaque outbreak in the Borborema Plateau focus (Paraiba), bacteriological and serological studies were carried out in material from 452 patients (48 positives), 1,938 rodents and other small mammals (75 positives), 4,756 dogs (141 positives) and 2,047 cats (57 positives) obtained from 41 counties (out of which, 21 produced positive samples). Twenty Yersinia pestis strains isolated from material from 3 patients and 17 rodents, displayed biochemical reactions, virulence factors, antibiotic susceptibility and animal experimental pathogenicity similar to those observed in strains previously isolated. According to our findings this recent plague outbreak did not exhibit different factors from those observed during prior outbreaks in other plague foci in the northeast of Brazil.During a plague outbreak in the Borborema Plateu focus (Paraiba), bacteriological and serological studies were carryed out in material from 452 patients (48 positives), 1,938 rodents and other small mammals (75 positives), 4,756 dogs (141 positives) and 2,047 cats (57 positives) obtained from 41 counties (out of which, 21 produced positive samples). Twenty Yersinia pestis strains isolated from material from 3 patients ans 17 rodents, displayed biochemical reactions, virulence factors, antibiotic susceptibility and animal experimental pathogenicity similar to those observed in strains previously isolated. According to our findings this recent plague outbreak did not exhibite different factors from those observed during prior outbreaks in other plague foci in the northeast of Brazil.

Importância dos carnívoros domésticos (cães e gatos) na epidemiologia da peste nos focos do nordeste do Brasil

Soros de carnivoros domesticos (caes e gatos), roedores, e pacientes suspeitos de peste, obtidos durante dois surtos de peste humana e de roedores, um em 1982, no foco da Serra de Baturite/CE e o outro, em 1986, no Planalto da Borborema/PB e soros de carnivoros e de roedores do foco da Chapada do Araripe/PE, obtidos, em 1986, na ausencia de casos humanos, foram analisados pelas micro tecnicas de hemaglutinacao passiva para anticorpos especificos, contra a fracao antigenica purificada - F1A - de Yersinia pestis e inibicao da hemaglutinacao. Os altos percentuais de carnivoros, sorologicamente, positivos encontrados durante os surtos de peste humana, confirmam que esses animais estao implicados no ciclo epidemiologico da peste, nos focos do Nordeste do Brasil, e representam valiosos indicadores das atividades da infeccao.

Schistosoma mansoni: structural damage after treatment with oxamniquine

The effects of a single dose (100 mg/kg-body weight of mouse) of oxamniquine on the worms tegument and paranchyma in relation to the process of immunological granulomatous reaction of the hosts liver are described under light and electron microscopy (EM). The lesions caused by the drug are sequentially and simultaneously described in form of swelling, surface bulble and disruption with erosions. Ulceration in the tubercules with loss of spines is often more extensive and severe in male worms and concentration of hosts mononuclear cells is observed. The possible role of hosts immune response is discussed.