RESUMO
Lyme disease is a tick-born infection first reported in United States of America in 1977 by Allen C. Steere. It occurred in the state of Connecticut; other cases have been discovered in others states of USA and also in other countries (Canada, Soviet Union, Japan, China, Australia). This disease has not been reported in South America yet. In order to investigate this disease in Brasil, a multi-disciplinary group including microbiologists, entomologists and clinicians was created at the University of São Paulo. The aim of this report is to describe the elaboration of this research in our center and also to present the preliminary results.
Assuntos
Vetores Aracnídeos , Grupo Borrelia Burgdorferi/isolamento & purificação , Doença de Lyme/epidemiologia , Carrapatos , Animais , Brasil/epidemiologia , Estudos Transversais , Doença de Lyme/microbiologiaRESUMO
Lyme disease is an infectious disease caused by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi, transmitted by certain ixodid ticks. The illness usually occurs in stages with many different clinical manifestations. The disease starts with a typical cutaneous lesion called erythema cronicum migrans, that usually develops at the site of the tick bite. After weeks or months, some patients develop neurological abnormalities, particularly meningitis, cranial nerve paralysis, peripheral radiculoneuritis, or cardiac involvement, such as atrioventricular blockade, myopericarditis and cardiomegaly, or migratory musculoskeletal pain. Months or years later, many patients develop arthritis, which usually occurs in intermittent attacks for several years. Lyme disease was only recently recognized in the United States. However this borreliosis has now been recognized in every continent except South America. In this paper we review the clinical and laboratorial features of Lyme borreliosis and discuss the possibility of its presence in Brazil or other parts of South America, where it has recently been recognized that ixodid ticks are common.
Assuntos
Doença de Lyme , Grupo Borrelia Burgdorferi/patogenicidade , Humanos , Doença de Lyme/diagnóstico , Doença de Lyme/microbiologiaRESUMO
Within a six-day period in March, 1974, three infants born at a hospital in central Arkansas developed meningitis caused by group B, type III Streptococci. Three factors suggested nosocomial transmission of the organism in the nursery: (1) the three infants were born in a six-day period, (2) four weeks after their infants' births, none of the parents had positive cultures for group B streptococci, and (3) 31% of infants born in the hospital in March were colonized with group B, type III streptococci, while in April, after control measures in the nursery were instituted, only 2% of infants were colonized with this type (p less than 0.0002). Colonized infants were treated with penicillin, but follow-up cultures at two and six weeks showed that half the infants tested were still colonized. The number of personnel colonized with group B streptococci was not significantly different in personnel exposed to infants when compared with those that were not, and handwashing and environmental cultures were negative for group B streptococci. The results of this investigation give additional support to the concept that nosocomial transmission of group B streptococci can occur and may be effectively interrupted by control measures in the nursery.