Characteristics of a hepatitis C patient cohort at a specialized tertiary care facility: Identifying criteria to improve the allocation of public health resources.

Objectives: Our objective was to analyze, in a population treated for hepatitis C infection at a tertiary care treatment unit, the prevalence of comorbidities and extrahepatic manifestations, the range and degree of the clinical complexity and the associations between advanced liver disease and clinical variables.

Methods: Medical records from chronically infected hepatitis C patients seen at a dedicated treatment facility for complex cases in the Infectious Diseases Division of Hospital das Clínicas in Brazil were analyzed. Clinical complexity was defined as the presence of one or more of the following conditions: advanced liver disease (Metavir score F3 or F4 and/or clinical manifestations or ultrasound/endoscopy findings consistent with cirrhosis) or hepatocellular carcinoma and/or 3 or more extrahepatic manifestations and/or comorbidities concomitantly.

COMPARISON OF METHODS TO IDENTIFY Neisseria meningitidis IN ASYMPTOMATIC CARRIERS.

Neisseria meningitidis is a cause of several life-threatening diseases and can be a normal commensal in the upper respiratory tract of healthy carriers. The carrier rate is not well established especially because there is no standard method for the isolation of N. meningitidis.

Spontaneous reporting of adverse events following pandemic influenza A (H1N1) immunization in a reference center in the State of São Paulo, Brazil.

Introduction: This paper describes adverse events (AEs) temporally associated to the pandemic influenza A (H1N1) vaccine observed in a reference center in São Paulo, Brazil, during a 2010 mass vaccination campaign.

Methods: A retrospective study involving persons who sought medical care for AEs following influenza vaccination. Data were retrieved from medical records, vaccine AE notification forms, and a computerized system for immunobiological registration.

Active assessment of adverse events following yellow fever vaccination of persons aged 60 years and more.

Introduction: Older age has been associated to serious adverse events (AE) following yellow fever (YF) vaccination in passive surveillance studies, but few prospective studies involving seniors have been published.

Results: A total of 906 persons were evaluated; 78 were not vaccinated and 828 received the vaccine; 700 (84.7%) were interviewed after vaccination: 593 (84.