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BACKGROUND: Disasters are the result of adverse events that cause human, material, environmental, and economic and social damage. To deal with disaster management, prevention, response, and recovery organizations need a system of indicators to measure their resilience. OBJECTIVE: To develop a road map to select indicators of organizational, institutional and governmental resilience to be applied to evaluate the resilience of public Protection and Civil Defense Organizations (PCDOs) of developing countries. METHOD: A literature review on resilience indicators for disaster management using Scopus database, identifying and classifying the resilience indicators available in the scientific literature, to discuss the possibilities of their application in PCDOs. RESULTS: Resilience indicators for disaster management available in the literature have many diverse classifications and they were developed for the evaluation of communities' resilience. The literature review results also indicated that there is a lack of indicators to evaluate PCDOs' resilience. CONCLUSIONS: Indicators of the institutional, organizational and governmental categories identified in the review, originally developed for the evaluation of communities' resilience, can be used to compose a hybrid system of resilience indicators able to measure the resilience of PCDOs.

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Vaginal probiotics containing lactic acid bacteria with activity towards pathogenic microorganisms that cause urogenital tract infections have been proposed as a valid strategy for their prophylaxis and therapy. A murine experimental model was set up to evaluate the colonization capability of beneficial human lactobacilli and their effects on the mouse vaginal mucosa and innate immune cells. Five Lactobacillus strains were intravaginally inoculated into previously estrogenized BALB/c mice. The significance of the effects observed in the vaginal tract was determined by analysis of variance using the general linear model. The numbers of viable vaginal lactobacilli were significantly higher at proestrous-estrous than those at the metaestrous-diestrous phase and decreased markedly on the days after inoculation. Lactobacilli inoculation did not cause cytological or histological modifications of the murine vaginal tract. Moreover, the intravaginal administration of Lactobacillus salivarius CRL (Centro de Referencia para Lactobacilos culture collection) 1328 and Lactobacillus gasseri CRL 1263 did not affect the amounts of granulocytes and macrophages present in vaginal washings. In conclusion, the results demonstrate that vaginal lactobacilli did not produce adverse effects on the murine vaginal tract. Therefore, they could be proposed as safe probiotic candidates to promote a balanced microbiota in the urogenital tract.

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Urogenital infections of bacterial origin have a high incidence among the world female population at reproductive age. Lactobacilli, the predominant microorganisms of the healthy vaginal microbiota, have shown a protective effect against the colonization and overgrowth of urogenital pathogens that increased the interest for including them into probiotics products assigned to restore the urogenital balance. In the present work, we determined in a mouse animal model the capability of Lactobacillus paracasei CRL 1289, a human vaginal strain with probiotic properties, to prevent the vaginal colonization of a uropathogenic strain of Staphylococcus aureus. Six-week-old female BALB/c mice, synchronized in their estral cycle, were intravaginally inoculated with two doses of 10(9) lactobacilli before challenging them with a single dose of 10(5) or 10(7) CFU of S. aureus. The vaginal colonization of both microorganisms and the effect on the vaginal structure were determined at 2, 5, and 7 days after pathogen inoculation. Control mice and those challenged only with the pathogen showed an insignificant lactobacilli population, whereas 10(5) lactobacilli/mL of vaginal homogenate were recovered at 2 days after challenge from the L. paracasei CRL 1289 and the probiotic + pathogen groups, decreasing this number on the following days. The treatment with L. paracasei CRL 1289 decreased significantly the number of staphylococci recovered at 2 and 5 days when mice were challenged only with 10(5) CFU of pathogen. The inoculation of S. aureus produced a remarkable inflammatory response and structural alterations in the vaginal mucosa that decreases in a significant manner when the mice were protected with L. paracasei CRL 1289. The results obtained suggest that this particular Lactobacillus strain could prevent the onset of urogenital infections by interfering with the epithelial colonization by uropathogenic S. aureus.

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Ampicillin was selected to further study the effect of this antibiotic on the colonization capability of S. pneumoniae and L. fermentum intranasally inoculated in a mice experimental model. The sensitivity of S. pneumoniae and L. fermentum to antibiotics was evaluated by different "in vitro" techniques. The results showed that both microorganisms have a typical pattern of sensitivity to antibiotics in these assays. The "in vivo" experiments showed that the treatment with Ampicillin increased the number of lactobacilli and neumococci in the groups of mice treated only with one of the microorganisms. In those mice treated with Lactobacillus, challenged later with neumococci and treated with Ampicillin, the pathogen in lung decreased on the 4th day, disappearing completely after on. The histological studies showed that the antibiotic treatment decreased the inflammatory response produced by the pathogen at the lung and trachea levels.

RESUMO

Respiratory tract infections are among the bacterial infections that affect humans with higher frequency. Those produced by Streptococcus pneumoniae are reported to have the highest incidence in the world, affecting both children and old people. As a 2001 report from the World Health Organization expressed it, the basic fight of children under 5 yr old is to survive. Five different conditions (acute respiratory infections, diarrhea, measles, palludism, and undernutrition) directly produce more than 50% of the deaths in this age group. Respiratory tract infections in the developing countries in the Americas are among the first three causes of death in children under 1 yr and between the first and second cause in children between 1 and 4 yr old. Pneumonia is responsible for 85 and 90% of deaths in children under 5 yr old (approx 150,000 annually), 95% of them occurring in the developing countries in the Americas. There is an increased worldwide tendency to use preventive measures and to consume products that help to maintain the health status of the individual. Thus the use of probiotics has increased systematically during the last decade, and the scientific literature trying to demonstrate the positive effect of such preparations has also increased. The term probiotic has been applied to products that (1) contain live microorganisms, freeze-dried or included in fermented products or (2) improve the health status of humans and animals, exerting effects in the mouth or gastrointestinal tract (included in foods or capsules), in the respiratory tract (as aerosols), or in the urogenital tract (by local application)Having in mind the high incidence of respiratory tract infections, and looking for preventive measures as well as the possible applications of probiotics, the aim of this chapter was to use mice as experimental models to determine whether members of the genus Lactobacillus were able to colonize and give protection from infections after inoculation by the intranasal route. To this end, the following procedures were carried out: 1. Screening of the predominant bacterial species in respiratory organs. 2. Study of the kinetics of colonization of the different groups of microorganisms from 15 d up to adult (2 mo). 3. Screening of the probiotic characteristics of all the isolated strains.

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The ultrastructural modifications of the respiratory tract of mice produced by the intranasally inoculated L. fermentum was evaluated. The genus Lactobacillus has been largely studied from the probiotic effect point of view in different ecological systems. Lactobacilli inoculated in 4 intranasal doses (1 x 10(9) CFU/dose) do not produce fundamental changes at the ultrastructural level in the organs of the respiratory tract studied. The most important finding was the presence of a cellular type with intracellular structures surrounded by membranes exhibiting electron dense paracristalline material parallel arranged.(AU)

Assuntos

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The ultrastructural modifications of the respiratory tract of mice produced by the intranasally inoculated L. fermentum was evaluated. The genus Lactobacillus has been largely studied from the probiotic effect point of view in different ecological systems. Lactobacilli inoculated in 4 intranasal doses (1 x 10(9) CFU/dose) do not produce fundamental changes at the ultrastructural level in the organs of the respiratory tract studied. The most important finding was the presence of a cellular type with intracellular structures surrounded by membranes exhibiting electron dense paracristalline material parallel arranged.

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