Active health Ombudsman service: evaluation of the quality of delivery and birth care.

Objective: To evaluate the active health Ombudsman service as an instrument to evaluate the quality of delivery and birth care in the Cegonha Network of the Federal District of Brazil.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of the telephone survey type carried out with 1,007 mothers with deliveries between October 15, 2013 and November 19, 2013 in the twelve public maternity hospitals that make up the Cegonha Network of the Federal District of Brazil. The instrument has 25 multiple choice or Likert scale questions, including sociodemographic data and acceptability evaluation in five domains: accessibility, relationship between the patient and health professionals, conditions of the structure of the service, information to the patient, and equity and opinion of the patient.

Consumption of camel's milk by patients intolerant to lactose. A preliminary study.

Objective: To determine whether camel's milk can be consumed by patients intolerant to lactose without undesirable reactions.

Patients And Method: Twenty-five patients with clinical and laboratorial diagnosis of lactose intolerance underwent provocation tests with growing amounts of cow's milk and subsequently with camel's milk.

Results: Except for two patients, who had mild reactions to the maximum dosage of camel's milk (250 mL), the acceptance was excellent.

Keratinolytic activity of Aspergillus fumigatus fresenius.

Aspergillus fumigatus can utilize chicken feather keratin as its sole carbon and nitrogen source. Because enzymatic conversion of native keratin into readily usable products is of economic interest, this fungus was studied for its capacity to produce and secrete keratin-hydrolyzing proteinases. Substantial keratin-azure hydrolyzing activity was present in the culture fluid of keratin-containing media.