This study describes the prevalence of infection by Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Trichomonas vaginalis in a female population in Amazonas, Brazil. We collected cervical samples from 361 women examined at 10 primary care health services in the city of Coari, Amazonas, Brazil. The women were interviewed about socio-economic data, clinical history and sexual behaviour. Pelvic examinations were performed and cervical specimens were collected for detection of pathogens by PCR. The prevalence of infection was: 12.7% for Trichomonas vaginalis, 6.4% for Chlamydia trachomatis and 1.4% for Neisseria gonorrhoeae. There were no statistically significant associations between infections by any of the pathogens nor by any pathogen alone with any clinical variable, socio-demographic data or sexual behaviour. This study draws attention to the need for surveillance and possible need for screening for Chlamydia trachomatis, which often progresses asymptomatically. For the significant prevalence found, attention should also be given to asymptomatic infection by Trichomonas vaginalis, since this pathogen has recently been implicated as a risk factor for HIV infection.

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) in a women population living within the state of Amazonas, Brazil, and to determine the viral genotypes found. The study included 361 sexually active women over 18 years of age. We performed the Pap test and the molecular diagnosis for HPV DNA using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The amplicons obtained were sequenced in automatic sequencer for genotyping. The presence of HPV DNA was found in 29.1% (105) of the women. Only 321 women presented satisfactory slides for cytological diagnosis, 97.9% (314) had normal cytology (negative for cancer), and 2.1% (7) had abnormal cytology (4 ASCUS, 1 LSIL, and 2 HSIL). The types more frequently found were HPV 16 (58.1%) and HPV 58 (20.0%). Additionally, we found more 13 types of HPV. Compared with previous studies in Brazil, our data confirmed a high prevalence and genotypic diversity of HPV in Brazilian women.

Background: Cryptococcosis is a disease of wide geographic distribution. It is most critical when it affects immunocompromised patients, with AIDS, tuberculosis or other diseases that require prolonged hospitalization. Methods: This study described a case report, molecular epidemiology, the phylogenetic relationship, along with antifungal susceptibility test of a new ST 623 of C. neoformans isolated in a patient with non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, from Manaus, Brazil. Results: The new C. neoformans was susceptible to all antifungal drugs tested. Our results showed that ST623 new clone has no evident evolutionary proximity to any other ST of the VNI subtype group identified in Brazil. Conclusions: In the context of phylogenetic analysis, this new genotype belongs to VNI subtype, and subsequencing complete genome studies are necessary to better understand the phylogenetic relationships amongst STs in this group.

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Background Healthcare workers are susceptible to colonization by multiresistant bacteria, which can increase the risk of outbreaks. Methods Samples were collected from the nasopharynx, hands, and lab coats of healthcare workers. The phenotypic identification was carried out using a VITEK®2 rapid test system. PCR tests for the mecA gene and the sequencing of the amplicons were performed. Staphylococcus epidermidis and Staphylococcus aureus phylogenies were reconstructed using the Bayesian inference. Results A total of 225 healthcare workers participated in this study. Of these, 21.3% were male and 78.7% female. S. epidermidis and S.aureus showed high levels of resistance to penicillin, ampicillin, erythromycin, tetracycline and cefoxitin. The prevalence of methicillin resistant S. aureus was 3.16% and methicillin resistant S. epidermidis was 100%. Multilocus sequence typing identified 23 new S. epidermidis sequence types, and one new allele and sequence type for S. aureus. The frequency of methicillin-resistant S. epidermidis in nursing and hemotherapy technicians as a percentage of the total number of healthcare workers was 5.8–3.1%, while the frequency of methicillin resistant S. aureus in hemotherapy technicians and biomedics, as a percentage of the total number of healthcare workers was 4.2–8.9%%. Conclusions The healthcare workers at the city’s blood bank, even when taking the necessary care with their hands, body and clothes, harbour methicillin-resistant S. aureus and S. epidermidis sequence types, which, as a potential source of multidrug resistant bacteria, can contribute to nosocomial infections among hematological patients.

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Nas últimas décadas, o uso de oligonucleotídeos desenhados pela Bioinformática tem aumentado consideravelmente devido à criação de novas tecnologias que fazem uso dessas moléculas. Dentro desse contexto, a utilização de oligonucleotídeos contendo bases degeneradas tem sido observada em variações da PCR, sequenciamento, na produção de sondas, aptâmeros entre outras moléculas. Diante desse cenário, torna-se necessária a criação de uma ferramenta capaz de gerar todas as possibilidades que uma sequência com bases degeneradas pode fornecer, tornando possível a criação de um banco de dados local para análises in silico. Este artigo descreve um software desenvolvido para analisar uma sequência de oligonucleotídeos contendo bases degeneradas e gerar, a partir dessa sequência, um arquivo com todas as sequências possíveis com as bases não degeneradas considerando a conversão das bases degeneradas em bases convencionais. O software obteve sucesso nos testes de validação com sequências de comprimentos variados, contendo bases convencionais e degeneradas, o que influencia diretamente o tempo de processamento.

The development of new generation sequencing has significantly boosted the capacity to generate genomic data, thus increasing the demand to automated genomic analysis tools. After genome sequencing and assembly, genomic annotation is performed, a process that allows the extraction of relevant data from generated sequences, highlighting the identification of protein coding genes. In order to facilitate the expansion of offline analysis of genes for resistance to heavy metals of the species Enterobacter cloacae amazonensis, the software Genomic Annotation Analysis Software-GANAS was developed, which visually details the genes and metabolic subsystems annotated using the platform RAST. The annotated genes were analyzed by software comparing the results in several organisms with known resistance to heavy metals. It was found that strain has more resistance genes than the main patterns found in the literature, thus showing the efficiency of using GANAS.