Assessment of family and neighbors of an individual infected with Wuchereria bancrofti from a non-endemic area in the city of Maceió, Brazil

The family and neighbors of a patient infected with W. bancrofti microfilariae were assessed aiming to evaluate the occurrence of cases of lymphatic filariasis in a non-endemic area in the city of Maceió, in the Brazilian state of Alagoas. The patient had previously lived in an endemic focus; however, he has been living in an area where the parasite has never been detected for the past ten years. Female ingurgitated Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes captured in the houses of the microfilaremic individual and of his neighbors in the non-endemic region were also examined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. The thick blood smear examination, blood membrane filtration, and rapid immunochromatography (antigen search) revealed no infected individuals in the family of the microfilaremic individual. All 334 neighbors undergoing the thick blood smear examination were negative for W. bancrofti microfilariae. In 478 ingurgitated C. quinquefasciatus mosquitoes examined by PCR, no W. bancrofti DNA was detected. The microfilaremic individual had a microfilaremia considered very low according to WHO standards (4 microfilariae/mL of blood). As the vectorial infection depends on microfilaremia, the patient's low parasite load did not determine the contamination of other individuals in the area. Our data have shown that the long-term residence of the microfilaremic individual in the non-endemic region was not sufficient to start a new transmission focus of lymphatic filariasis in Maceió.

Frequência de bactérias gram-negativas em uroculturas de paciente ambulatoriais, do sistema único de saúde (SUS) de Maceió (AL) e sua sensibilidade a antibióticos / Frequency of gram-negative in cultures of urine from ambulatorial patients of he unified health system (uhs) from Maceió (AL) and their sensitivity to antibiotics

Este trabalho visou determinar a frequência e sensibilidade a antibióticos de bactérias( Gram-negativas (BGN), isoladas de uroculturas de pacientes usuários do Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS) em Maceió (AL) com infecção do trato urinário (ITU), no período de janeiro a julho/2005. Foram conduzidas 1900 uroculturas (inoculação quantitativa) com posterior identificação morto-bioquímica das bactérias. Constatou-se crescimento em 10,6% (201)das uroculturas, sendo que 169 delas (84,1%) apresentaram BGN's e 32 (15,9%) apresentaram cocos Gram-positivos. Das BGN's, 133 (78,6%) foram identificados como Escherichia coli, 18 (10,7%) como Klebsiella sp, 11 (6,5%) como Proteus sp, 3 (1,8%) como Enterobacter sp, 2 (1,2%0 como Citrobacter sp e 2 (1,2%) como Providência estéril), procedeu-se o método de difusão em disco para detectar a sensibilidade a antibióticos. O Imipenem foi o mais eficiente, porém dentre as drogas de primeira escolha recomendadas pelo CLSI/NCCLS (2005), a Gentamicina apresentou a melhor ação (86,4%), enquanto as menos efetivas foram a Sulfonamida (9,3%), a associação Sulfametoxazol + Trimetoprim (31,6%), a Ampicilina (32,0%) e a Amoxicilina (30,4%), justamente as disponíveis nas farmácias públicas de Maceió.