Socioeconomic Status of Guardians as a Risk Factor for Canine Visceral Leishmaniasis: A Cohort Study in an Endemic Area of the Federal District, Brazil.

Current control measures of canine visceral leishmaniasis (CVL), a chronic and fatal zoonosis with potential transmission to humans, are not efficient enough to reduce its spread. The search for improved control measures should include studies of risk factors for infection and illness. This study aimed to identify the risk factors for CVL in an endemic locality of the Federal District, Brazil, from June 2016 to December 2018.

Detecting Leishmania in dogs: A hierarchical-modeling approach to investigate the performance of parasitological and qPCR-based diagnostic procedures.

Background: Domestic dogs are primary reservoir hosts of Leishmania infantum, the agent of visceral leishmaniasis. Detecting dog infections is central to epidemiological inference, disease prevention, and veterinary practice. Error-free diagnostic procedures, however, are lacking, and the performance of those available is difficult to measure in the absence of fail-safe "reference standards".

Restructuring of emergency services to COVID-19 in Brazil: a space-time analysis from February to August 2020.

Objective: To explore the reorganization of the health system in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: We conducted an ecological, descriptive-exploratory study with analysis of spatio-temporal clusters by epidemiological week in Brazilian municipalities. Secondary data sources were used, from the National Health Establishment Registry (April 2020) and on COVID-19 cases, February to August 2020.

National COVID-19 vaccination plan: using artificial spatial intelligence to overcome challenges in Brazil.

This article explores the use of spatial artificial intelligence to estimate the resources needed to implement Brazil's COVID-19 immu nization campaign. Using secondary data, we conducted a cross-sectional ecological study adop ting a time-series design. The unit of analysis was Brazil's primary care centers (PCCs).

A cross-sectional approach including dog owner characteristics as predictors of visceral leishmaniasis infection in dogs.

Background: Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is relevant for human and animal public health. Several factors have been associated with the risk of Leishmania infantum infection in dogs. However, dog owner characteristics have been rarely explored.

Improving the reference standard for the diagnosis of canine visceral leishmaniasis: a challenge for current and future tests.

Background: Studies aimed at validating canine visceral leishmaniasis diagnostic tests present heterogeneous results regarding test accuracy, partly due to divergences in reference standards used and different infection evolution periods in animals.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of the rapid test-dual path platform (TR-DPP) (Biomanguinhos®), EIE-Leishmaniose-Visceral-Canina-Biomanguinhos (EIE-LVC) (Biomanguinhos®), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) rK39 (in-house), and the direct agglutination test (DAT-Canis) against a reference standard comprising parasitological and molecular techniques.

Methods: A phase II/III validation study was carried out in sample sera from 123 predominantly asymptomatic dogs living in an area endemic for visceral leishmaniasis.