This article presents the results of a cross-sectional study involving 115 newly-diagnosed leprosy patients and 1,011 household contacts, all under the age of 18. Seropositivity ratios and factors associated with a positive ML Flow were determined. The test was positive in 21.7% of patients and in 19.7% of contacts. Among patients, logistic regression indicated the association of seropositivity...

The physical transport of Escherichia coli in terrestrial environments may require control to prevent its dissemination from potential high-density sources, such as confined animal feedlot operations. Biobarriers, wherein convective flows carrying pathogens pass through a porous matrix with high retentive capacity, may present one such approach. Eight environmental E. coli isolates were selecte...

OBJECTIVES To determine the magnitude of relapses in multibacillary leprosy patients after multi-drug therapy and to determine the factors influencing the relapse. DESIGN A retrospective study pertaining to multibacillary leprosy patients treated with MBMDT as per WHO guidelines was carried out. The study included 300 MB patients who had successfully completed treatment during 1986-2002, of w...

Campania's buffalo mozzarella is a greatly appreciated cheese in Italy and worldwide. From a microbiological standpoint, it is a highly perishable food and potentially at risk of contamination by pathogens such as Listeria monocytogenes (L. monocytogenes). The present paper reports the results of a challenge test carried out to assess the population dynamics of L. monocytogenes, alone and in pr...

The reuse of poultry litter is a common practice in the Brazilian poultry industry for flocks of healthy chickens, due to 2 fundamental aspects: production cost and environmental sustainability. Litter is a potentially important source of infection for Salmonella, which requires characterization by microbiological analysis in different aspects of management and reuse. The objective of this stud...

Wound closure requires a complex series of micro-environmentally influenced events. A key aspect of wound closure is the migration of keratinocytes across the open wound. It has been found previously that the response to hypoxia via the HIF-1α transcription factor is a key feature of wound closure. The need for hypoxic response is likely due to interrupted wound vasculature, as well as infectio...

Early embryos of many organisms develop outside the mother and are immediately confronted with myriads of potential colonizers. How these naive developmental stages control and shape the bacterial colonization is largely unknown. Here we show that early embryonic stages of the basal metazoan Hydra are able to control bacterial colonization by using maternal antimicrobial peptides. Antimicrobial...

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