Risk Factors for Mycobacterium abscessus subsp. bolletii infection after laparoscopic surgery during an outbreak in Brazil.

OBJECTIVE To identify risk factors related to Mycobacterium abscessus subsp. bolletii infection during an outbreak, associated with laparoscopic surgery and to propose recommendations for preventing new cases. DESIGN A retrospective cohort study.

Years of potential life lost and hospitalization costs associated with leptospirosis in Brazil.

Objective: To estimate costs of hospitalization and years of potential life lost associated with leptospirosis.

Methods: Databases of the Brazilian Ministry of Health's information system were used to carry out probabilistic linkage of cases and hospitalizations leading to death by leptospirosis in 2007. Within the Information System for Notifiable Diseases, confirmed cases were subdivided into hospitalization and death.

Assessment of an optimized dog-culling program in the dynamics of canine Leishmania transmission.

In Brazil, zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis (ZVL) control programs based on the mass elimination of seropositive dogs have failed to reduce the number of leishmaniasis cases. However, these programs have been done under sub-optimal conditions. We studied a cohort of dogs in an urban area in Brazil to determine, whether a dog-culling program optimized with: (i) replacement of a relatively low-sensitivity indirect immune-fluorescent test on blood eluate by a more sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay on serum blood samples; (ii) shortening of the time interval from serodiagnosis to removal of dogs; (iii) screening a high proportion of the dog population could reduce the incidence of canine Leishmania infection (CLI).