Advancing towards the elimination of trachoma as a cause of blindness in two cities in Sao Paulo State, Southeastern Brazil.

The World Health Organization recommends conducting prevalence surveys to validate the elimination of trachoma as a public health problem by the year 2030. The recommendation specifies that the surveys should be directed to previous endemic poor rural areas. Brazil is an endemic country for trachoma and has experienced a large internal migration from the rural areas to the outskirts of the major cities.

Prevalence of Trachoma in Schoolchildren in Brazil.

Purpose: Trachoma was hyperendemic in Brazil until the 20th century. The prevalence has declined sharply in the past decades. The aim of this study was to estimate trachoma prevalence in schoolchildren in Brazilian municipalities with a Human Development Index (HDI) below the national mean.

Acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis epidemic in São Paulo State, Brazil, 2011.

Acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis (AHC) infection is highly contagious and can lead to explosive epidemics. In early February 2011, the Center for Epidemiologic Surveillance of the State of São Paulo Health Secretariat (SES-SP) in Brazil received reports of conjunctivitis outbreaks from rural areas of the state that subsequently spread statewide. This report describes that AHC epidemic and its etiologic agent.

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.

[Trachoma epidemiological school survey in the city of Embu das Artes--SP].

Purpose: To estimate the trachoma prevalence in school children in Embu das Artes - SP, aiming the implementation of the disease epidemiological surveillance.

Methods: The city of Embu das Artes - SP, is 25 km far from the capital of the State. In the years of 2003-2004, a trachoma survey was conducted in a cluster sample of school children with the same methodology of the national trachoma student's survey of the Ministry of Health.

Analyses of cataract surgery performed by the Unified Health System in Brazil, 2006-2007.

Objective: Estimate cataract surgical rates (CSR) for Brazil and each federal unit in 2006 and 2007 based on the number of surgeries performed by the Unified Health System to help plan a comprehensive ophthalmology network in order to eliminate cataract blindness in compliance with the target set by the World Health Organization (WHO) of 3,000 cataract surgeries per million inhabitants per year.

Methods: This descriptive study calculates CSR by using the number of cataract surgeries carried out by the Brazilian Unified Health System for each federal unit and estimates the need for cataract surgery in Brazil for 2006-2007, with official population data provided by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. The number of cataract surgeries was compared with the WHO target.

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.

[Prevalence of trachoma among school children in Bauru: São Paulo State, Brazil].

Purpose: A survey was carried out with schoolchildren in Bauru, São Paulo State. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of trachoma.

Methods: One thousand, seven hundred and forty-nine children from 6 to 14 years old were examined during the year of 2005.

[Prevalence and spatial distribution of trachoma among schoolchildren in Botucatu, São Paulo - Brazil].

Purpose: To assess the prevalence of trachoma in schoolchildren of Botucatu/ SP-Brazil and its spatial distribution.

Methods: Cross-sectional study in children aged from 7 to 14 years, who attended elementary schools in Botucatu/SP in November/2005. The sample size was estimated in 2,092 children, considering the 11.

Assessment of the current ocular health practices within neonatal units in the City of São Paulo, Brazil.

Purpose: To assess the ocular health practices within the neonatal units of the City of São Paulo, Brazil.

Methods: A questionnaire was sent to 36 neonatal units that performed 3000 or more deliveries during 2004. Data were collected on Credè’s method of ophthalmia neonatorum prophylaxis, red reflex testing, retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) screening and treatment, and ophthalmic referral systems.

Prevalence of trachoma in a population of the upper Rio Negro basin and risk factors for active disease.

Purpose: To determine the prevalence of trachoma in Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira (SGC), the only urban community of the upper Rio Negro Basin of the Amazon state in Brazil, near the Colombian border, and to investigate the risk factors associated with the active forms of the disease.

Methods: A total of 1702 people (440 children up to 9 years and 1069 adults aged 15 years and above) were examined. The sample was selected from a probabilistic household sampling procedure based on census data and a previous study of trachoma prevalence in Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira.

Trachoma prevalence and risk factors among preschool children in a central area of the city of São Paulo, Brazil.

Purpose: To estimate the prevalence and severity of trachoma among preschool children and to identify the risk factors.

Methods: Cross-sectional study involving preschool children up to seven years of age residing in a neighborhood of the city of São Paulo, Brazil.

Results: A total of 1128 children were studied.

[Factors associated with trachoma in a low-endemic area in southeast Brazil].

A case-control study matched by age and school (n=121 pairs) was carried out among pre-elementary and elementary students from low-income families living in Greater Metropolitan São Paulo, Brazil, with the objective of investigating factors associated with trachoma in a low prevalence area. The case definition for trachoma was that proposed by the World Health Organization. The dependent variable was trachoma and the independent variables were social stratum, housing of migrants from endemic areas, facial hygiene habits, head of family's schooling, access to potable water, contact with another case in the family, and slum residence.

[Prevalence of trachoma in preschool and schoolchildren in the city of São Paulo].

Objective: To assess the prevalence of trachoma among preschool and school children of public schools to give new focus to control programs.

Methods: An epidemiological survey was carried out in São Paulo City in 1999. Children between four and 14 years old were selected by a cluster sampling where school shift was the sampling unit.

[Trachoma prevalence in preschoolers and schoolchildren in Botucatu, São Paulo State, Brazil, 1992].

Trachoma dispensaries were created in the State of São Paulo in 1938, when the incidence of trachoma was 10.9% in Botucatu. During the 1970s trachoma ceased to pose a public health problem.

Trachoma and ethnic diversity in the Upper Rio Negro Basin of Amazonas State, Brazil.

A trachoma survey was carried out among three culturally different populations of the Upper Rio Negro Basin in the Brazilian rain forest of Amazonas State. The results indicate that trachoma is prevalent in the region, reaching hyperendemic levels (between 50.9% and 56.