Tifo Murino em Portugal

Murine typhus or endemic typhus is a wide spread infectious disease, with a low prevalence in developed countries, but surely underdiagnosed. Its relative benignity, the similarity to other infectious diseases and the discretion of its epidemiologic chain, as well as the usual unexpectedness of its existence, makes its diagnosis more difficult. The clinical presentation and evolution of this case illustrate the necessity of being aware of this nosological entity.

Perinatal Death: Epidemiology and Etiology

Perinatal mortality rate is an important mark to evaluate women and perinatal health care. It is of utmost importance to know causes and the evolution of its two components aiming to improve health care in different fields – sanitary conditions, diagnosis and treatment of infectious disease, immunisations, diagnosing and caring for medical diseases induced by pregnancy or directly related to it, providing skilled birth attendance, preventing birth asphyxia, preventing preterm birth complications and infections. In high-income countries the epidemiology varies mainly with social and economic conditions; in low-income countries, paired with poverty, undernutrition, superstition, lack of medical care, deficient basic sanitary conditions are also found. Also, in rich countries, responsible for 1% of deaths, data are published and improvements evaluated, while in low-income countries responsible for 99% of deaths numbers and causes are unknown, making difficult to implement cost effective interventions, a reason why “stillbirth rates in low-income countries are now where they were in high-income countries 50 to 100 years ago”. Knowledge on causes of death are very important as often what is needed are “simple” measures as improvement of sanitary conditions and immunisation programmes rather than high technologies. About four million babies dye each year in the first 28 days of life and another 3 million dye before birth in the third-trimester, with 98% occurring in low-income and middle income countries and more than 1 million occurring during labour and delivery. Classically stillbirths are the major component of perinatal mortality rate. Causes of death are even more difficult to know. In low-income countries a great proportion of women give birth at home. Worldwide the main causes of stillbirth are asphyxia due to obstructed labour, eclampsia, abruption placenta and umbilical cord complications - making valid the assumption that skilled birth attendance would decrease stillbirth; and infection - chorioamnioitis, syphilis and malaria. In high-income countries placental pathology and infection, congenital anomalies, complications of preterm birth and post term delivery, are the most common. If in low-income countries famine and lack of provisions and health care are common, in high-income countries, advanced maternal age and diabetes, obesity, hypertension, smoking, are frequent findings.

Amniocentesis in HIV Pregnant Women: 16 Years of Experience

The iatrogenic risk of HIV vertical transmission, calculated in initial epidemiologic studies, seemed to counterindicate invasive prenatal diagnosis (PND) procedures. The implementation of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) represented a turning point in PND management, owing to a rapid and effective reduction of maternal viral load (VL). In the present study, we identified cases of vertical transmission in HIV-infected pregnant women who did amniocentesis in the second trimester of pregnancy (n = 27), from 1996 to 2011. We divided our sample into Group A--women under HAART when submitted to amniocentesis (n = 20) and Group B--women without antiretroviral therapy before amniocentesis (n = 7). We had 1 case of vertical transmission in Group B. Preconceptional or early first trimester HIV serology is essential to avoid performing an amniocentesis without antiretroviral therapy or viral suppression. When there is an indication for amniocentesis in an HIV-infected pregnant woman, it should be done if the patient is on HAART and, if possible, when VL is undetectable. Nowadays, with combined first trimester screening test to select pregnancies with high risk of aneuploidies, advanced maternal age is a less frequent indication to perform PND invasive procedures, representing an outstanding gain in prenatal diagnosis of this population.

Rhinoscleroma in a 5-year-old Portuguese Child

Rhinoscleroma is a chronic granulomatous infectious disease that is rare in Western Europe. We report the case of a 5-year-old Portuguese boy diagnosed with rhinoscleroma in the context of recurrent epistaxis. He had a 6-month course of antibiotic (amoxicillin plus clavulanate) therapy with full recovery.

Evolution of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 2 Envelope in the First Years of Infection is Associated with the Dynamics of the Neutralizing Antibody Response

Background: Differently from HIV-1, HIV-2 disease progression usually takes decades without antiretroviral therapy and the majority of HIV-2 infected individuals survive as elite controllers with normal CD4+ T cell counts and low or undetectable plasma viral load. Neutralizing antibodies (Nabs) are thought to play a central role in HIV-2 evolution and pathogenesis. However, the dynamic of the Nab response and resulting HIV-2 escape during acute infection and their impact in HIV-2 evolution and disease progression remain largely unknown. Our objective was to characterize the Nab response and the molecular and phenotypic evolution of HIV-2 in association with Nab escape in the first years of infection in two children infected at birth. Results: CD4+ T cells decreased from about 50% to below 30% in both children in the first five years of infection and the infecting R5 viruses were replaced by X4 viruses within the same period. With antiretroviral therapy, viral load in child 1 decreased to undetectable levels and CD4+ T cells recovered to normal levels, which have been sustained at least until the age of 12. In contrast, viral load increased in child 2 and she progressed to AIDS and death at age 9. Beginning in the first year of life, child 1 raised high titers of antibodies that neutralized primary R5 isolates more effectively than X4 isolates, both autologous and heterologous. Child 2 raised a weak X4-specific Nab response that decreased sharply as disease progressed. Rate of evolution, nucleotide and amino acid diversity, and positive selection, were significantly higher in the envelope of child 1 compared to child 2. Rates of R5-to-X4 tropism switch, of V1 and V3 sequence diversification, and of convergence of V3 to a β-hairpin structure were related with rate of escape from the neutralizing antibodies. Conclusion: Our data suggests that the molecular and phenotypic evolution of the human immunodeficiency virus type 2 envelope are related with the dynamics of the neutralizing antibody response providing further support for a model in which Nabs play an important role in HIV-2 pathogenesis.