Trachoma in Indigenous Settlements in Brazil, 2000-2008.

Purpose: Trachoma, caused by the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis, is a chronic, recurrent inflammatory disease that affects the cornea and conjunctiva. Trachoma is the leading infectious cause of avoidable blindness worldwide. Its prevalence is higher among individuals of low socioeconomic status, and trachoma is common in indigenous communities.

[Prevalence of trachoma in Brazilian schoolchildren].

Objective: To estimate the prevalence and describe the distribution of trachoma among schoolchildren in Brazilian municipalities.

Methods: Cross-sectional study, using cluster sampling, of the schoolchildren population of the Brazilian municipalities with Human Development Index - Municipal lower than the national average. This trachoma prevalence survey was conducted by the Ministry of Health, in the period 2002-2007.

Survey of Trachoma within school students in the state of Roraima, Brazil.

Purpose: Trachoma, a blinding conjunctivitis, is the result of repeated infection with Chlamydia trachomatis. There are no recent data for the state of Roraima, Brazil, where it was thought that trachoma no longer existed. These data are derived from school children sampled in this state, with additional data collected from the contacts of children with trachoma.

[Impact of anti-Hib conjugate vaccine on the incidence of Haemophilus influenzae meningitis in Brazil's Federal District: results of a three-year follow-up].

Introduction: Type b Haemophilus influenzae (Hib) continues to be an important causative agent of various infectious processes, and its encapsulated strains cause invasive disease. In some aboriginal populations, the incidence of Hib infections in children under five is greater than 400 per 100,000. In the seventies and eighties, vaccines against Hib were developed after antibodies against the capsular component were identified.