Epidemiological features of rotavirus infection in Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil, from 1986 to 2000

A total of 2,605 faecal specimens from children up to 10 years old with or without diarrhoea were collected. Samples were obtained from 1986 to 2000 in hospitals, outpatient clinics and day-care centers in Goiânia, Goiás. Two methodologies for viral detection were utilized: a combined enzyme immunoassay for rotavirus and adenovirus and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Results showed 374 (14.4%) faecal specimens positive for Rotavirus A, most of them collected from hospitalized children. A significant detection rate of rotavirus during the period from April to August, dry season in Goiânia, and different frequencies of viral detection throughout the years of study were also observed. Rotavirus was significantly related to hospitalization and to diarrhoeal illness in children up to 24 months old. This study reinforces the importance of rotavirus as a cause of diarrhoea in children and may be important in regards to the implementation of rotavirus vaccination strategies in our country.

Molecular epidemiology reveals long-term changes in HIV type 1 subtype B transmission in Switzerland.

BACKGROUND: Sequence data from resistance testing offer unique opportunities to characterize the structure of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection epidemics. METHODS: We analyzed a representative set of HIV type 1 (HIV-1) subtype B pol sequences from 5700 patients enrolled in the Swiss HIV Cohort Study. We pooled these sequences with the same number of sequences from foreign epidemics, inferred a phylogeny, and identified Swiss transmission clusters as clades having a minimal size of 10 and containing >or=80% Swiss sequences. RESULTS: More than one-half of Swiss patients were included within 60 transmission clusters. Most transmission clusters were significantly dominated by specific transmission routes, which were used to identify the following patient groups: men having sex with men (MSM) (38 transmission clusters; average cluster size, 29 patients) or patients acquiring HIV through heterosexual contact (HETs) and injection drug users (IDUs) (12 transmission clusters; average cluster size, 144 patients). Interestingly, there were no transmission clusters dominated by sequences from HETs only. Although 44% of all HETs who were infected between 1983 and 1986 clustered with injection drug users, this percentage decreased to 18% for 2003-2006 (P<.001), indicating a diminishing role of injection drug users in transmission among HETs over time. CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis suggests (1) the absence of a self-sustaining epidemic of HIV-1 subtype B in HETs in Switzerland and (2) a temporally decreasing clustering of HIV infections in HETs and IDUs.

Le paysage originel et la nostalgique élégiaque chez Maurice Chappaz

Si le XXe siècle est l'une des époques les plus paradoxales de notre Histoire - à la fois générateur du progrès technique qui devait accroître la qualité de vie des hommes et triste berceau de deux guerres mondiales qui n'ont cessé de multi-plier ravages et victimes pendant presque trente ans -, il a produit un nombre considérable de poètes, qui continuent d'intéresser un large public. Au fil des quelque 580 pages qui constituent le présent volume, les auteurs ont tenté de présenter chacun un poète du siècle dernier, en essayant de mettre en évidence les parti-cularités de sa poétique. Ce livre n'est donc pas une anthologie de tombeaux, mais une approche intellectuelle dont le but est d'éclairer une partie de la vie et de l'oeuvre des 32 poètes traités.