The scarcity of data about the effects of chlamydial infection on pregnancy and neonatal outcomes justified this study. Diagnosing and treating chlamydial infection during the third trimester of pregnancy may prevent neonate infection. Therefore, preventive screening should be seen as a priority for early detection of asymptomatic C. trachomatis infection as part of local public health strategies.

Background: We established for the first time the prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis infection among infertile women in Manaus Amazonas Brazil using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. Methods: 106 women were studied at a public university hospital fertility clinic for infertility problems correlated with chlamydia infection. Social-economic and clinical information was obtained before medical examination to obtain samples for the amplification of C. trachomatis DNA plasmid. Results: The prevalence of chlamydial infection among infertile women was 52.8, and 51.8% of the positive participants were older than 30 years of age (p = 0.8697). Of the 56 women positive for C. trachomatis, 31 (55.4%) had never given birth, while 9 (16%) had a pregnancy resulting in fetal death. Our findings also revealed that these patients had a low socio-economic status and high unemployment (p = 0.0274), and a significant association of 5% (p < 0.05) of chlamydial infection with family income. Conclusions: Due to the high prevalence of C. trachomatis, concerns about effects on reproductive health and fertility are undertaken. Therefore, we believe it is extremely necessary to implement large-scale PCR-based screening as part of routine clinical detection programs concerning preventive effects of chlamydial infection among this population.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) type 13 is associated with focal epithelial hyperplasia, a benign and self-limited disease of oral mucosa. It is a rare finding, most often seen among young American natives. We carried out a molecular characterization case study of HPV type 13 isolated from a 14-year-old native girl living in Amazonia, in the northern region of Brazil, by describing the E6 and E7 open reading frame (ORF) sequences and comparing them to the only reference sequence in GenBank, which came from a Turkish isolate. The E6 and E7 ORFs were amplified by PCR, and the amplicons were purified and cloned in E. coli using the pCR ® -4 TOPO ® vector. The purified recombinant plasmids were automatically sequenced, showing 98 and 94% similarity to the E6 and E7 ORFs from the reference sequence, respectively. Six mutations were identified in the E6 ORF, but these changed only three amino acids in the final protein. In the E7 ORF, we found three transversions and one deletion of nine base pairs, which led to three amino acid mutations and three amino acid deletions in the final protein. The mutations in E6 ORF gave no predicted changes in the final protein, while the mutations in E7 were predicted to cause changes in the ©FUNPEC-RP www.funpecrp.com.br Genetics and Molecular Research 19 (1): gmr18393 C.M. Borborema-Santos et al. 2protein. We conclude that the E6 and E7 ORFs in HPV-13 from the Amazonia and Turkey isolates have a high degree of genetic similarity.

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