The fourth national anti-tuberculosis drug resistance survey in Peru.

Peru has one of the highest burdens of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), but universal drug susceptibility testing (DST) has not yet been achieved. To estimate the proportion of drug resistance among smear-positive TB patients in Peru. From September 2014 to March 2015, we performed a national drug resistance survey of patients aged ≥15 years; TB was diagnosed based on sputum smear positivity.

Processing bulk natural wood into a high-performance structural material.

Synthetic structural materials with exceptional mechanical performance suffer from either large weight and adverse environmental impact (for example, steels and alloys) or complex manufacturing processes and thus high cost (for example, polymer-based and biomimetic composites). Natural wood is a low-cost and abundant material and has been used for millennia as a structural material for building and furniture construction. However, the mechanical performance of natural wood (its strength and toughness) is unsatisfactory for many advanced engineering structures and applications.

Organoclay nanocomposites of post-industrial waste poly(butylene terephthalate) from automotive parts.

Polymeric nanocomposites are novel materials of huge interest owing to their favourable cost/performance ratio with low amount of nanofillers, improved thermal resistance, flame retardancy and mechanical properties in relation to their matrices. In this work, composites based on post-industrial waste or primary recycled poly(butylene terephthalate) and 5 wt.% of organic modified montmorillonite clays were melt compounded using a twin-screw extruder.

Transmission of Multidrug-Resistant and Drug-Susceptible Tuberculosis within Households: A Prospective Cohort Study.

Background: The "fitness" of an infectious pathogen is defined as the ability of the pathogen to survive, reproduce, be transmitted, and cause disease. The fitness of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDRTB) relative to drug-susceptible tuberculosis is cited as one of the most important determinants of MDRTB spread and epidemic size. To estimate the relative fitness of drug-resistant tuberculosis cases, we compared the incidence of tuberculosis disease among the household contacts of MDRTB index patients to that among the contacts of drug-susceptible index patients.

[Mycobacterium avium lung infection in HIV/AIDS patient: first report in Peru].

The Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) is a pathogen found in the environment which causes infections in immunocompetent and immunocompromised patients. One case is presented: an HIV positive, 38 year old male patient, infected with P. jirovecii and apparently infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis since 2009.

[Molecular test Genotype® MTBDRplus, an alternative to rapid detection of multidrug resistance tuberculosis].

The Genotype®MTBDRplus molecular test is a method that allows identification of the most frequent mutations associated with resistance to major first-line antituberculosis drugs, Isoniazid (INH) and Rifampicin (RFP). The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of the molecular test with culture and smear- positive sputum samples. We evaluated 95 cultures and 100 sputum samples with resistance profiles previously determined by the reference method "Agar Plate Proportions" (APP).

[Cost analysis of rapid methods for diagnosis of multidrug resistant tuberculosis in different epidemiologic groups in Perú].

Objectives: To evaluate the costs of three methods for the diagnosis of drug susceptibility in tuberculosis, and to compare the cost per case of Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) diagnosed with these (MODS, GRIESS and Genotype MTBDR plus®) in 4 epidemiologic groups in Peru.

Materials And Methods: In the basis of programmatic figures, we divided the population in 4 groups: new cases from Lima/Callao, new cases from other provinces, previously treated patients from Lima/Callao and previously treated from other provinces. We calculated the costs of each test with the standard methodology of the Ministry of Health, from the perspective of the health system.

Confirming the presence of HTLV-1 infection and the absence of HTLV-2 in blood donors from Arequipa, Peru.

Epidemiological studies conducted in Peru disclosed HTLV-1 to be prevalent in different ethnic groups, and found HTLV-2 in some Amazonian Indians and in men who have sex with men. No data concerning HTLV-1/2 infection in blood donors from Arequipa, a highlands region in southern Peru, is available. We searched for the presence of HTLV-1 and HTLV-2 antibodies in 2,732 serum samples obtained from blood donors from this geographic area.

Programmatic implementation of rapid DST for Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Peru.

Background: Performance characteristics of novel rapid drug susceptibility tests (DST) for Mycobacterium tuberculosis may change when moving from research to implementation in actual public health practice. We describe the performance characteristics of a direct, rapid DST when implemented in Lima, Peru.

Methods: A district laboratory validated conventional proportions and nitrate reductase methods.

Scale-up of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis laboratory services, Peru.

Over the past 10 years, the Peruvian National Tuberculosis (TB) Program, the National Reference Laboratory (NRL), Socios en Salud, and US partners have worked to strengthen the national TB laboratory network to support treatment of multidrug-resistant TB. We review key lessons of this experience. The preparation phase involved establishing criteria for drug susceptibility testing (DST), selecting appropriate DST methods, projecting the quantity of DST and culture to ensure adequate supplies, creating biosafe laboratory facilities for DST, training laboratory personnel on methods, and validating DST methods at the NRL.

Outbreak of persistent cutaneous abscesses due to Mycobacterium chelonae after mesotherapy sessions, Lima, Peru.

Outbreaks of rapidly growing mycobacteria have been occasionally described. The article reports an outbreak of cutaneous abscesses due to Mycobacterium chelonae following mesotherapy in Lima, Peru. From December 2004 through January 2005, 35 subjects who had participated in mesotherapy training sessions presented with persistent cutaneous abscesses.