We herein present a Brazilian guideline for the management of feline sporotrichosis, a mycosis caused by Sporothrix brasiliensis. This guideline is an effort of a national technical group organized by the Working Group on Sporothrix and Sporotrichosis of the International Society for Human and Animal Mycology (ISHAM). This publication intends to provide information on clinicalepidemiological aspects of this zoonosis, as well as a literature revision. Moreover, it gives some practical information on diagnosis and treatment of feline sporotrichosis. It also contains information that can be helpful for the prevention and control of S. brasiliensis transmission.

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Background: Sporotrichosis is an emerging zoonotic mycosis that presents as a cutaneous lymphatic or disseminated disease, caused by fungi from the Sporothrix schenkii (S schenkii) clinical clade. Its importance is growing, primarily due to an outbreak that occurred in Brazil, affecting mainly cats and people.Objectives: In Brazil, an S schenkii diagnosis is often made using cultures, which allows genus identification and sufficient growth to perform molecular biology testing.Despite its advantages, fungal cultures are slow to develop and can delay public health measures, highlighting the importance of developing additional diagnostics techniques.Methods: Cell block cytology (CBLC) is an older method that regained importance after liquid-based cytology (LBC) was introduced, and it has been previously and successfully applied to veterinary diagnostics. We aimed to standardize and compare CBLC from cervical brush exfoliation of open wounds and fine-needle aspirates with culture and immunohistochemistry of skin biopsies for sporotrichosis in cats, as a novel method.Results: For this purpose, we selected 40 cats with skin lesions suspected of having sporotrichosis in Guarulhos city, São Paulo state, Brazil. We achieved 97.5% and 95% positivity using CBLC and culture, respectively, and 100% of feline skin biopsies were positive for Sporothrix spp on histopathology/immunohistochemistry. Conclusions:Cell block cytology is an efficient and rapid tool to diagnose sporotrichosis in cats, particularly during epidemics.

RESUMO Urbanização afeta a composição e funções ecossistêmicas das comunidades de morcegos em várias regiões do planeta. Entretanto, este ainda é um tema pouco explorado no Neotrópico. No Brasil, embora poucas cidades apresentem inventários de quirópteros, órgãos municipais de saúde pública (e.g., Centro de Controle de Zoonoses) realizam a vigilância passiva dos morcegos infectados pelo vírus da raiva. Estas instituições fazem a identificação dos espécimes oriundos principalmente de áreas urbanas e coletam dados biológicos importantes para o manejo ambiental, controle populacional, ecologia e conservação das espécies. O presente estudo analisou os dados de recebimento de morcegos, de 2001 a 2017, oriundos da cidade de Guarulhos, comparando as taxas de recebimento, frequência, riqueza e dominância das espécies com estudos prévios conduzidos em cidades brasileiras. Os dados da vigilância em saúde pública demonstraram uma alta riqueza de espécies (n = 29), representadas por três famílias mais comuns em áreas urbanas brasileiras (Phyllostomidae, Molossidae e Vespertilionidae). Molossus molossus (Pallas, 1766), Glossophaga soricina (Pallas, 1766) e Myotis nigricans (Schinz, 1821) representaram a maioria (70%) dos dados da quiropterofauna de Guarulhos. Esta dominância pode estar relacionada com a flexibilidade da dieta dessas espécies (insetívoras e nectarívoras não obrigatórias) e abrigos diurnos em edificações, recursos estes altamente disponíveis nas cidades brasileiras. Assim, para mitigar os efeitos da urbanização sobre a rica quiropterofauna regional, recomenda-se que o planejamento ambiental das cidades considere suas diretrizes urbanísticas e florísticas como uma ferramenta ao manejo integrado da fauna silvestre e saúde pública, além de implantar estratégias para aumentar o potencial de conservação da biodiversidade nestes ambientes.

Dengue is a disease that concerns health authorities in many countries and the surveillance systems are adopting measures to control it, once a great epidemic of hemorrhagic fever is expected to occur. Epidemiologic studies help these surveillance systems to improve and to manage preventive actions to control the disease. The objective of this research was to carry out an epidemiologic study of notified and confirmed cases of dengue, from the database of SINAN, corresponding to the years from 2000 to 2005 in the City of Guarulhos (SP). To analyze the occurrence of the illness according to social-demographic variables (sex, race, age and demographic density of each district), a statistical analysis was performed, and, for each variable, the differences between the cases of the data base and the individuals of the population of the city were observed. For the variable "sex", statistically significant differences between the proportions for each sex in the data base and in the city population were not observed (P=0.28); for the variable "race", a statistically significant difference was not observed between the proportions of individuals of the races "medium brown" and "indigenous" (P>0.05), however in the other comparisons between races ("white", "black color", " yellow" and "ignored"), statistically significant differences were observed (P<0.05). For age, statistically significant differences were not observed in the categories of 15-19 years, 20-24 years, 25-29 years, 55-59 years, 60-64 years and 70-74 years (P>0.05) when compared with the corresponding age intervals in the city population. However, in the other age intervals (0-4, 5-9, 10-14, 30-34, 40-44, 45-49, 50-54, 75+ years) statistically significant differences were observed (P<0.05). We assessed whether there was a relationship between the monthly number of cases, for each year, and the Breteau index, the meteorological data of monthly total precipitation and monthly compensated average temperature. Low correlation coefficients, however, were observed between the cases and the Breteau index and between the cases and the monthly compensated average temperature and the monthly total precipitation for each year. An analysis of the time series of cases was carried out, and it was possible to observe an increase in the number of cases in years 2002 and 2003. In the seasonal analysis it was observed that, from February to May, the number of cases surpasses the annual mean, and that the number of cases from June and January are below the mean. The cases were distributed in georeferenced maps by district and year of incidence and it was possible to observe the process of increasing endemicity of the illness, with cases spread throughout the city in every year of the study.

Dengue is a major vector-borne disease and has motivated health surveillance systems to implement various measures to control it. The epidemiological characterization of dengue occurrence in a community is an important step to foster control activities. We carried out an epidemiological study of the notified and confirmed cases of dengue, from 2000 to 2005, in Guarulhos, State of São Paulo, Brazil. A statistical analysis was performed to test the differences, by sex and age, between the database and the individuals of the population. We also performed a time series analysis of the cases from 2000 to 2007. No statistically significant differences (P > 0.05) were observed between the proportions for each sex in the data base and in the city population, and in the categories of 15-19 years, 20-24 years, 25-29 years, 55-59 years, 60-64 years and 70-74 years when compared with the corresponding age intervals in the population. In the other age intervals, statistically significant differences were observed (P < 0.05). We observed a cyclic variation in the dengue incidence, between 2000 and 2007, with an alternation of two years with a smaller number of cases (2000-2001 and 2004-2005) and two years with a larger number of cases (2002-2003 and 2006-2007). In the seasonality analysis, the number of cases between February and May was higher than the monthly average. Analyzing the spatial distribution of the cases, we observed the process of increasing endemicity of dengue.

Dengue is a major vector-borne disease and has motivated health surveillance systems to implement various measures to control it. The epidemiological characterization of dengue occurrence in a community is an important step to foster control activities. We carried out an epidemiological study of the notified and confirmed cases of dengue, from 2000 to 2005, in Guarulhos, State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. A statistical analysis was performed to test the differences, by sex and age, between the database and the individuals of the population. We also performed a time series analysis of the cases from 2000 to 2007. No statistically significant differences (P>0.05) were observed between the proportions for each sex in the data base and in the city population, and in the categories of 15-19 years, 20-24 years, 25-29 years, 55-59 years, 60-64 years and 70-74 years when compared with the corresponding age intervals in the population. In the other age intervals, statistically significant differences were observed (P<0.05). We observed a cyclic variation in the dengue incidence, between 2000 and 2007, with an alternation of two years with a smaller number of cases (2000-2001 and 2004-2005) and two years with a larger number of cases (2002-2003 and 2006-2007). In the seasonality analysis, the number of cases between February and May was higher than the monthly average. Analyzing the spatial distribution of the cases, we observed the process of increasing endemicity of dengue.