Uma nova possibilidade de vigilância: identificamos todos os casos de leptospirose?

Leptospirosis is a febrile disease with a typically underestimated global incidence, especially in regions where dengue is endemic. Therefore, it is difficult to accurately determine the number of leptospirosis cases in these areas, which contributes to significant under-reporting this disease. In this study, we estimated the number of possible leptospirosis cases among dengue-like cases that were reported during 2008, 2010, and 2012 in the city of Fortaleza, northeast Brazil. Patients were evaluated for dengue and leptospirosis using immunoenzymatic tests for IgM antibodies that were specific to each pathogen. Among the suspected cases of dengue that resulted as negative in laboratory tests, 10.8% (2008), 19.2% (2010), and 30.8% (2012) were confirmed to be leptospirosis. Considering the cases reported by the surveillance authority as dengue that were subsequently discarded based on the laboratory test results, we estimate that the number of actual leptospirosis cases may be 26 to 49 times higher than those diagnosed and reported by the Health Services. Furthermore, we believe that approximately 20% of dengue-like cases may be leptospirosis cases in areas where the two diseases are endemic.A leptospirose é doença febril tipicamente subestimada em todo o mundo, principalmente em áreas que a dengue se apresenta de forma endêmica. Desta forma, há limitações importantes na compreensão do número de casos de leptospirose nessas áreas, o que proporciona maior subnotificação. Neste estudo, apresentamos estimativa de possíveis casos de leptospirose a partir de casos de dengue-símile na cidade de Fortaleza, nordeste do Brasil, durante os anos de 2008, 2010 e 2012. Os pacientes foram investigados para dengue e leptospirose utilizando testes imunoezimáticos para detecção do anticorpo, da classe IgM, específicos para cada patologia. Entre os casos suspeitos de dengue, mas que não apresentaram resultado laboratorial positivo, 10,8%; 19,2% e 30,8% foram confirmados como leptospirose nos anos de 2008, 2010 e 2012; respectivamente. Considerando os casos notificados pela vigilância de dengue e que foram, posteriormente, descartados, baseados nos resultados dos testes laboratoriais, estimamos que o número atual de casos de leptospirose pode ser de 26 a 49 vezes mais do que o detectado e notificado pelos serviços de saúde. Além disso, acreditamos que aproximadamente 20% dos casos de dengue-símile podem ser de leptospirose, em áreas onde as duas doenças ocorram de forma endêmica

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Educomunicação e suas áreas de intervenção: Novos paradigmas para o diálogo intercultural

oai:omp.abpeducom.org.br:publicationFormat/1O material aqui divulgado representa, em essência, a contribuição do VII Encontro Brasileiro de Educomunicação ao V Global MIL Week, da UNESCO, ocorrido na ECA/USP, entre 3 e 5 de novembro de 2016. Estamos diante de um conjunto de 104 papers executivos, com uma média de entre 7 e 10 páginas, cada um. Com este rico e abundante material, chegamos ao sétimo e-book publicado pela ABPEducom, em seus seis primeiros anos de existência. A especificidade desta obra é a de trazer as “Áreas de Intervenção” do campo da Educomunicação, colocando-as a serviço de uma meta essencial ao agir educomunicativo: o diálogo intercultural, trabalhado na linha do tema geral do evento internacional: Media and Information Literacy: New Paradigms for Intercultural Dialogue

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Technology usage as a vehicle for information and approximation with society

Introduction: Confronting the COVID-19 pandemic involves actions in the scope of information, especially in combating false content disseminated by social media. In this sense, medical students, including those belonging to a Trauma and Emergency Academic League, have mobilized to create a media campaign in order to disseminate information about SARS-CoV-2’s aspects to the population. The objective of this work was to report the contribution of the league members to the campaign developed to disseminate reliable scientific content based on simple and objective language about COVID-19. Methodology: A campaign was organized by second to the sixth-year medical students, members of 15 university academic leagues, with the aim to use social media as an information tool for health educational practice. Results: The students from the Trauma and Emergency Academic League made a total of 6 posts on Instagram, using the league’s and the campaign’s accounts. Those posts obtained a total of 1983 views and had the purposed of reaching the general population. The information provided was about self-medication and its risks or benefits, preventive measures against COVID-19 and how to make and use homemade masks. Among the public that accessed the campaign’s profile on Instagram, 70% were women and 80% were between 18 and 34 years old. Discussion: With the reported activities, league students described acquiring knowledge about COVID-19, in addition to teamwork experience and contribution to the fight against the pandemic through the materials production and its dissemination to the population. It allowed innovation in learning and in the access to knowledge, as the pandemic imposed new health-related educational challenges. However, it is noticed that there is a limitation in the posts scope, as they have mostly reached a specific age group. Conclusion: The proper internet usage is essential to combat misleading information in the pandemic context. Therefore, the online dissemination of reliable information with the intent to reach a larger audience indicates academic commitment, especially to social responsibility

A Importância da Estimulação visual em Crianças com Síndrome de Down: Visão dos Profissionais

Introdução: O portador da Síndrome de Down apresenta diversas patologias associadas, entre elas, os distúrbios visuais. O tratamento para essas alterações visuais é realizado através da estimulação visual que é um conjunto de técnicas que estimulam a capacidade perceptiva visual, tendo como objetivo a utilização adequada da visão melhorando o desenvolvimento global da aprendizagem e a qualidade de vida. Objetivo: O presente estudo tem como objetivo destacar a importância da estimulação visual nas crianças portadoras da Síndrome de Down na visão dos fisioterapeutas e terapeutas ocupacionais. Metodologia: Estudo exploratório, descritivo, longitudinal e observacional, onde foram selecionados fisioterapeutas (n = 6) e terapeutas ocupacionais (n = 6) que trabalham com estimulação visual em crianças portadoras da Síndrome de Down. Os dados foram coletados através de um questionário com perguntas abertas, realizado de forma individual. Resultados: Podemos observar que, 8 (67,2%) profissionais possuem mais de seis anos de trabalho com crianças portadoras de Síndrome de Down, 9 (75%) afirmaram que os sinais das alterações visuais aparecem entre um e três anos de idade, 11 (91,6%) utilizam a estimulação visual em seus tratamentos, em média de duas a três vezes por semana, e todos destacaram a importância da estimulação visual. Conclusão: A estimulação visual traz inúmeros benefícios para a criança com Síndrome de Down, visando principalmente minimizar as alterações visuais e a prevenção das complicações decorrentes

Hippocampal Dysfunction Provoked by Mercury Chloride Exposure: Evaluation of Cognitive Impairment, Oxidative Stress, Tissue Injury and Nature of Cell Death

Mercury (Hg) is a highly toxic metal, which can be found in its inorganic form in the environment. This form presents lower liposolubility and lower absorption in the body. In order to elucidate the possible toxicity of inorganic Hg in the hippocampus, we investigated the potential of low doses of mercury chloride (HgCl2) to promote hippocampal dysfunction by employing a chronic exposure model. For this, 56 rats were exposed to HgCl2 (0.375 mg/kg/day) via the oral route for 45 days. After the exposure period, the animals were submitted to the cognitive test of fear memory. The hippocampus was collected for the measurement of total Hg levels, analysis of oxidative stress, and evaluation of cytotoxicity, apoptosis, and tissue injury. It was observed that chronic exposure to inorganic Hg promotes an increase in mercury levels in this region and damage to short- and long-term memory. Furthermore, we found that this exposure model provoked oxidative stress, which led to cytotoxicity and cell death by apoptosis, affecting astrocytes and neurons in the hippocampus. Our study demonstrated that inorganic Hg, even with its low liposolubility, is able to produce deleterious effects in the central nervous system, resulting in cognitive impairment and hippocampal damage when administered for a long time at low doses in rats