ABSTRACT
Chagas disease (CD) continues to be a major public health burden in Latina America. Information on the interplay between COVID-19 and CD is lacking. Our aim was to assess clinical characteristics and in-hospital outcomes of patients with CD and COVID-19, and to compare it to non-CD patients. Consecutive patients with confirmed COVID-19 were included from March to September 2020. Genetic matching for sex, age, hypertension, diabetes mellitus and hospital was performed in a 4:1 ratio. Of the 7018 patients who had confirmed COVID-19, 31 patients with CD and 124 matched controls were included (median age 72 (64-80) years-old, 44.5% were male). At baseline, heart failure (25.8% vs. 9.7%) and atrial fibrillation (29.0% vs. 5.6%) were more frequent in CD patients than in the controls (p < 0.05). C-reactive protein levels were lower in CD patients compared with the controls (55.5 [35.7, 85.0] vs. 94.3 [50.7, 167.5] mg/dL). In-hospital management, outcomes and complications were similar between the groups. In this large Brazilian COVID-19 Registry, CD patients had a higher prevalence of atrial fibrillation and chronic heart failure compared with non-CD controls, with no differences in-hospital outcomes. The lower C-reactive protein levels in CD patients require further investigation.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/complications , Chagas Disease/pathology , Hospitalization/trends , Aged , Atrial Fibrillation , Brazil , C-Reactive Protein/analysis , COVID-19/pathology , Chagas Disease/complications , Chagas Disease/virology , Coinfection , Diabetes Mellitus , Female , Hospital Mortality/trends , Hospitalization/statistics & numerical data , Hospitals , Humans , Hypertension , Male , Middle Aged , Retrospective Studies , Risk Factors , SARS-CoV-2/pathogenicityABSTRACT
Composting is a process recommended as a way to recycle the organic part of the solid waste in which several micro and macroorganisms act as decomposers of the organic matter, in a process that takes around 120 days and faces roughly three different phases. Because we do not know the community of arthropods associated with the compost produced in one of the biggest landfills placed in Brazil, here we collected and identified the community of arthropods present in each phase of the organic compost. Our hypothesis is that the abundance and diversity of arthropods are different within each phase of the compost and we hope to find particular groups of arthropods that can be used as indicator of specific phases. In total, we identified the taxa of 1204 arthropods (insects, arachnidan and diplopods). We found that diversity and abundancy of arthropods were indeed different for each maturation phase of the compost, but we did not find families that are good indicators of each phase. In addition, to be certain about the safety of the compost produced, we investigated the presence of microorganisms in the final product and we found considerable levels of Escherichia coli and Enterococcus faecalis in some samples. Finally, we argue that the presence of these macro and microorganisms during the process may be beneficial or harmful. Since their presence decreased greatly by the end of the process, we acknowledge that composting works efficiently as a way to recycle the organic part of the waste generated in Brazil.