Snakebites caused by snakes are the most prevalent in the Amazon region, causing local and systemic complications. Local complications are mostly represented by necrosis, secondary bacterial infection and compartment syndrome. There are reports of long-term disabilities, but their burden is poorly investigated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA 9-year-old male with autism and a history of well-controlled epilepsy presented with acute headache, fever, and generalized tonic-clonic seizures. Initial diagnostics, including imaging and cerebrospinal fluid analysis, were inconclusive. However, further serological testing suggested the presence of the chikungunya virus, establishing a diagnosis of chikungunya-associated neurological manifestation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study analyzed a total of 260 confirmed scorpion stings reported in the city of Manaus, in the Brazilian Amazon, from 1990 to 2020. Cases were mapped according to the GPS location of their occurrence and plotted on a satellite image of the city. The stings generally occurred close to green areas, and the hotspots of stings moved north as city grew into that direction over time.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAcute kidney injury (AKI) is a critical systemic complication caused by Bothrops envenoming, a neglected health problem in the Brazilian Amazon. Understanding the underlying mechanisms leading to AKI is crucial for effectively mitigating the burden of this complication. This study aimed to characterize the urinary protein profile of Bothrops atrox snakebite victims who developed AKI.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS Negl Trop Dis
July 2023
Envenomation caused by venomous animals may trigger significant local complications such as pain, edema, localized hemorrhage, and tissue necrosis, in addition to complications such as dermonecrosis, myonecrosis, and even amputations. This systematic review aims to evaluate scientific evidence on therapies used to target local effects caused by envenomation. The PubMed, MEDLINE, and LILACS databases were used to perform a literature search on the topic.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFViruses
March 2023
The high incidence of Zika virus (ZIKV) infection in the period of 2015-2016 in Brazil may have affected linear height growth velocity (GV) in children exposed in utero to ZIKV. This study describes the growth velocity and nutritional status based on the World Organization (WHO) standards of children exposed to ZIKV during pregnancy and followed up in a tertiary unit, a reference for tropical and infectious diseases in the Amazon. Seventy-one children born between March 2016 and June 2018 were monitored for anthropometric indices: z-score for body mass index (BMI/A); weight (W/A); height (H/A) and head circumference (HC/A); and growth velocity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLancet Reg Health Am
August 2022
Background: Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency testing is not routinely performed before primaquine treatment in most endemic areas, despite the risk of primaquine-associated hemolysis. This is due to the operational challenges associated with pragmatic G6PD testing and as such needs to be addressed.
Methods And Findings: This mixed-methods operational study was aimed at implementing the quantitative point-of-care Standard G6PD (SD Biosensor, Korea) screening test in malaria treatment units (MTUs) in the municipalities of Rio Preto da Eva and Mâncio Lima, in the Brazilian Amazon, between mid-January 2020 and December 2020.
Snakebite envenomings (SBEs) and other envenomings triggered by venomous animals (VAEs) represent a significant disease burden in Brazil, with 29,152 SBEs reported in 2021 alone with nearly half of those occurring in the remote Brazilian Amazon. In 2021, Brazil recorded 240,294 envenomings from snakes, scorpions, spiders, and caterpillars. Therefore, there is an unequal distribution of SBEs with high morbidity and mortality in the Brazilian Amazon.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Brazilian Amazon has high rates of snakebite envenomings (SBEs), with ∼90% caused by Bothrops atrox. Envenomings by this species can trigger local and systemic effects, such as acute kidney injury (AKI). Our aim was to identify predictors of AKI in Bothrops SBEs in patients from Manaus, Western Brazilian Amazon.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
May 2022
Globally, malaria and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are both independently associated with a massive burden of disease and death. While their co-infection has been well studied for Plasmodium falciparum, scarce data exist regarding the association of P. vivax and HIV.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Although primaquine (PQ) is indicated for G6PD-deficient patients, data on weekly PQ use in Brazil are limited.
Methods: We aimed to investigate malaria recurrences among participants receiving daily and weekly PQ treatments in a real-life setting of two municipalities in the Amazon between 2019 and 2020.
Results: Patients receiving weekly PQ treatment had a lower risk of recurrence than those receiving daily PQ treatment (risk ratio: 0.
Background: As quantitative glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency (G6PDd) screening tools are evaluated in operational studies, questions remain as to whether they are cost-effective. Here, a cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) was performed to estimate the Incremental Cost-effectiveness Ratio (ICER) of the introduction of quantitative screening test to detect G6PDd among P. vivax carriers in two municipalities in the Brazilian Amazon.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAIDS Res Ther
February 2022
Background: Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) has demonstrated efficacy in the reduction of sexually transmitted HIV infections. The prolonged use of tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) and emtricitabine (FTC) co-formulation (TDF/FTC), however, may result in augmented risk of renal toxicity. We aimed to evaluate changes in the estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR) in a real-world population setting of participants enrolled in PrEP Brazil, a 48-week prospective, open-label, demonstration study to assess the feasibility of daily oral TDF/FTC used by men who have sex with men and transgender women at high-risk of HIV infection, all over 18 years old.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS Negl Trop Dis
May 2021
Background: Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency greatly hinders Plasmodium vivax malaria radical cure and further elimination due to 8-aminoquinolines-associated hemolysis. Although the deleterious health effects of primaquine in G6PD deficient individuals have been known for over 50 years, G6PD testing is not routinely performed before primaquine treatment in most P. vivax endemic areas.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAccess to antivenoms is not guarranteed for vulnerable populations that inhabit remote areas in the Amazon. The study of therapeutic itineraries (TI) for treatment of snakebites would support strategies to provide timely access to users. A TI is the set of processes by which individuals adhere to certain forms of treatment, and includes the path traveled in the search for healthcare, and practices to solve their health problems.
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