How has the municipal availability of the GeneXpert®MTB/RIF system affected the detection of drug-resistant tuberculosis in Brazil?

Objective: To evaluate the association between the availability of GeneXpert®MTB/RIF in municipalities and the proportion of people who have access to this diagnostic technology for tuberculosis (TB), as well as the resistance detected by the surveillance system in Brazil.

Methods: We analysed 4998 Brazilian municipalities that reported 432,937 new TB cases between 2015 and 2020. We compared municipalities with and without the availability of GeneXpert®MTB/RIF regarding the effective access to GeneXpert®MTB/RIF diagnosis and the prevalence of detected resistance.

Disagreement between PCR and serological diagnosis of Trypanosoma cruzi infection in blood donors from a Colombian endemic region.

Introduction: Chagas' disease is the leading cause of infectious myocarditis worldwide. This infection caused by Trypanosoma cruzi is usually life-long and asymptomatic; however, the third part of infected people can develop severe or even fatal cardiomyopathy. As the parasitemia in the chronic phase is both low-grade and intermittent, T.