Chikungunya Neurological Manifestations: A Systematic Literature Review

Although the most common Chikungunya (do not capitalize the disease unless it is named after a proper noun such as Zika, Ebola or Carrion’s Disease) manifestations are osteoarticular, those which bring the most morbidity and mortality are neurological, where thorough mapping through studies with a methodological outline have not yet been well structured. Therefore, the objective was to review the literature to identify neurological manifestations of CHIKV. We used the Virtual Health Library (VHL) and PubMed with the following descriptors: #1 “Chikungunya” [MeSH]; #2 “neurological manifestations” [MeSH] and their equivalents in the Portuguese language, selecting literature published between July 2007 to January 2018. From the 180 studies that were found, 30 were selected. Findings were divided into two subcategories: “Chikungunya: Typical Neurological Manifestations” and “Chikungunya: Severe Neurological Manifestations”. The studies show that headaches were characterized as the most common symptom in adult patients affected by CHIKV, followed by meningeal involvement. Meningeal involvement is also a more serious clinical scenario associated with encephalitis, convulsions, polyneuropathies such as Guillain-Barré syndrome and death. CHIKV is a public health problem for many reasons including its chronic potential complications. Given the neurological symptoms, this disease is concerning in age extremes, for patients with comorbidities and for patients with more than one viral infection by arboviruses, in whom the most severe neurological manifestations are more common

Growing knowledge: an overview of Seed Plant diversity in Brazil

Abstract An updated inventory of Brazilian seed plants is presented and offers important insights into the country's biodiversity. This work started in 2010, with the publication of the Plants and Fungi Catalogue, and has been updated since by more than 430 specialists working online. Brazil is home to 32,086 native Angiosperms and 23 native Gymnosperms, showing an increase of 3% in its species richness in relation to 2010. The Amazon Rainforest is the richest Brazilian biome for Gymnosperms, while the Atlantic Rainforest is the richest one for Angiosperms. There was a considerable increment in the number of species and endemism rates for biomes, except for the Amazon that showed a decrease of 2.5% of recorded endemics. However, well over half of Brazillian seed plant species (57.4%) is endemic to this territory. The proportion of life-forms varies among different biomes: trees are more expressive in the Amazon and Atlantic Rainforest biomes while herbs predominate in the Pampa, and lianas are more expressive in the Amazon, Atlantic Rainforest, and Pantanal. This compilation serves not only to quantify Brazilian biodiversity, but also to highlight areas where there information is lacking and to provide a framework for the challenge faced in conserving Brazil's unique and diverse flora