Description of the first cases of Zika virus fever investigated in municipalities of the Brazilian Northeastern Region, 2015.

Objective: to confirm Zika virus circulation and discard other etiological agents in an outbreak occurred in the states of Rio Grande do Norte, Maranhão and Paraíba, in May, 2015.

Methods: this is a case series descriptive study with residents in Natal-RN, Barra do Corda-MA, São Luis-MA and João Pessoa-PB, with 20 cases in each state, presenting rash, absent or mild fever and one of the following signs/symptoms: conjunctival hyperemia, arthralgia or limb edema; RT-PCR/isolation tests for Zika, enterovirus and respiratory viruses, and serology tests (dengue, rubella and parvovirus B19) were performed.

Results: the main symptoms were rash (n=60), pruritus (n=54), and arthralgia (n=47); 51 individuals did not present fever; Zika virus was identified in 18 cases (12 in Paraíba, four in Maranhão and two in Rio Grande do Norte), and antibodies to dengue, in 14 cases.

Microcephaly in north-east Brazil: a retrospective study on neonates born between 2012 and 2015.

Objective: To assess the number of children born with microcephaly in the State of Paraíba, north-east Brazil.

Methods: We contacted 21 maternity centres belonging to a paediatric cardiology network, with access to information regarding more than 100 000 neonates born between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2015. For 10% of these neonates, nurses were requested to retrieve head circumference measurements data from delivery-room books.

[Nursing diagnoses for clients hospitalized in an infectious disease clinic].

The aim of this exploratory descriptive study was to create nursing diagnosis statements for hospitalized clients based on the Database of Special Nursing Language Terms of the Infectious Diseases Clinic of a teaching hospital and on the ICNP®. Further, we aimed to validate the diagnosis statements with the participation of clinical nurses and nursing teachers who worked at the clinic. Eighty-eight nursing diagnosis statements were constructed.