The Microcephaly Epidemic Research Group Paediatric Cohort (MERG-PC): A Cohort Profile.

This cohort profile aims to describe the ongoing follow-up of children in the Microcephaly Epidemic Research Group Paediatric Cohort (MERG-PC). The profile details the context and aims of the study, study population, methodology including assessments, and key results and publications to date. The children that make up MERG-PC were born in Recife or within 120 km of the city, in Pernambuco/Brazil, the epicentre of the microcephaly epidemic.

Early epilepsy in children with Zika-related microcephaly in a cohort in Recife, Brazil: Characteristics, electroencephalographic findings, and treatment response.

Objective: To estimate the incidence of epilepsy in children with Zika-related microcephaly in the first 24 months of life; to characterize the associated clinical and electrographic findings; and to summarize the treatment responses.

Methods: We followed a cohort of children, born during the 2015-2016 Zika virus (ZIKV) epidemic in Brazil, with congenital microcephaly and evidence of congenital ZIKV infection on neuroimaging and/or laboratory testing. Neurological assessments were performed at ≤3, 6, 12, 15, 18, 21, and 24 months of life.

Risk of coronary heart disease among HIV-infected patients: a multicenter study in Brazil.

Cardiovascular disease has emerged as a crescent problem among HIV-infected population. This study aimed to determine the 10-year risk of coronary heart disease using the Framingham risk score among HIV-infected patients from three regions of Brazil. This is a pooled analysis of three cohort studies, which enrolled 3,829 individuals, 59% were men, 66% had white skin color, and mean age 39.

Incidence and risk factors for health care-associated pneumonia in a pediatric intensive care unit.

Objectives: To determine the incidence and risk factors for health care-associated pneumonia in a pediatric intensive care unit.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Pediatric intensive care unit with 16 medical and surgical beds in a tertiary teaching hospital in Recife, northeast Brazil.

Selection bias: neighbourhood controls and controls selected from those presenting to a Health Unit in a case control study of efficacy of BCG revaccination.

Background: In most case control studies the hardest decision is the choice of the control group, as in the ideal control group the proportion exposed is the same as in the population that produced the cases.

Methods: A comparison of two control groups in a case control study of the efficacy of BCG revaccination. One group was selected from subjects presenting to the heath unit the case attended for routine prevention and care; the second group was selected from the neighbourhood of cases.

[Homicide progression per geographical area in the State of Pernambuco, Brazil, 1980-1998].

Objective: To analyze the magnitude and growth of homicides among male population according to the geopolitical areas.

Methods: An ecological study including a time series analysis was carried out among 15 to 49 year-old males living in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. Mortality data was collected from the Ministry of Health's Mortality Information System.