Diagnostic performance of the bioline dengue duo rapid test on symptomatic patients assisted at Armed Forces Hospital (Hfa) in Brasília, Brazil.

Dengue necessitates accurate diagnosis. Rapid tests such as Bioline™ DENGUE DUO have gained traction, but validation in specific populations is essential. This study aimed to evaluate the performance of the Bioline™ test, alongside assessing the socio-epidemiological profile of symptomatic patients in a Brasília Military Hospital. The serum of 404 symptomatic patients was analyzed by the Bioline™ DENGUE DUO test, followed by Dengue virus detection and discrimination of the four serotypes by RT-qPCR. Accuracy was assessed using parameters including sensitivity (S), specificity (E), positive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV), and positive (RV +) and negative (RV-) likelihood ratios. The NS1 component exhibited a sensitivity of 70.37%, a specificity of 97.30%, and an overall efficiency of 90.10% when compared to RT-qPCR as the gold standard. The IgM component demonstrated a sensitivity of 26.85%, a specificity of 89.53%, and an overall efficiency of 72.77% when compared to RT-qPCR as the gold standard. The IgG component demonstrated a sensitivity of 23.15%, a specificity of 68.92%, and an overall efficiency of 56.68% when compared to RT-qPCR as the gold standard. Several rapid tests are commercially available. However, considering variations across regions and demographic groups, it is important to question their accuracy in specific populations. Rapid tests are important screening tools, but they can have limitations for the certainty of diagnosis. Bioline™ DENGUE DUO displayed good specificity, but sensitivity was slightly below optimal levels. While helpful for confirming dengue, improvements are needed to effectively rule out the disease.

The presence of antibiotics and multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus reservoir in a low-order stream spring in central Brazil.

The disposal of industrial effluents strongly influences low-order streams, which makes them fragile ecosystems that can be impacted by contamination. In central Brazil, the Extrema River spring targets the dumping of pharmaceutical products from the surrounding industries. So, this work aimed to investigate the presence of antibiotics in Extrema River spring samples and the isolation of Staphylococcus aureus, a potential multidrug-resistant bacteria, verifying the antimicrobial resistance profile of these isolates. Three campaigns were carried out in different locals (P1-P3) between October and December 2021, in the dry and rainy seasons. The high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LCMS) approach indicated the presence of sulfamethoxazole (≥ 1 ng/L), metronidazole (< 0.5 ng/L), and chloramphenicol (< 5 ng/L) in the water samples in November (rainy season). S. aureus was isolated in P1 (n = 128), P2 (n = 168), and P3 (n = 36), with greater resistance to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (90%), clindamycin (70%), and gentamicin (60%). The presence of antibiotics in the Extrema River spring may cause S. aureus antibiotic resistance development. The presence of antibiotics and the high percentage of isolated multidrug-resistant S. aureus in the Extrema River spring cause concern and indicate the clandestine dumping of effluents from nearby pharmaceutical industries. Since preserving the springs of low-order streams is important for the environment and public health, we encourage monitoring the wastewater from Extrema River's nearby pharmaceutical industries and preserving the spring of this river.

"pySewage": a hybrid approach to predict the number of SARS-CoV-2-infected people from wastewater in Brazil.

It is well known that the new coronavirus pandemic has global environmental, public health, and economic implications. In this sense, this study aims to monitor SARS-CoV-2 in the largest wastewater treatment plant of Goiânia, which processes wastewater from more than 700,000 inhabitants, and to correlate the molecular and clinical data collected. Influent and effluent samples were collected at Dr. Helio de Seixo Britto's wastewater treatment plant from January to August 2021. Viral concentration was performed with polyethylene glycol before viral RNA extraction. Real-time qPCR (N1 and N2 gene assays) was performed to detect and quantify the viral RNA present in the samples. The results showed that 43.63% of the samples were positive. There is no significant difference between the detection of primers N1 (mean 3.23 log10 genome copies/L, std 0.23) and N2 (mean 2.95 log10 genome copies/L, std 0.29); also, there is no significant difference between the detection of influent and effluent samples. Our molecular data revealed a positive correlation with clinical data, and infection prevalence was higher than clinical data. In addition, we developed a user-friendly web application to predict the number of infected people based on the detection of viral load present in wastewater samples and may be applied as a public policy strategy for monitoring ongoing outbreaks.

Molecular epidemiological investigation of Mayaro virus in febrile patients from Goiania City, 2017-2018.

Mayaro virus (MAYV) has historically been associated with sylvatic transmission; however, urban outbreaks have been reported in Brazil, including cases of co-detection with dengue virus (DENV). Therefore, we performed a molecular survey to investigate MAYV circulation and cocirculation with DENV within Goiania, a major city in Central-West Brazil. Among 375 subjects with arbovirus-like symptoms, 259 were positive for DENV and 26 for MAYV. Of these, 17 were coinfected with DENV-2, suggesting co-transmission of the viruses. The most common complaints at the time of inclusion were myalgia, headache, fever, arthralgia, retro-orbital pain, and skin rash. No specific symptoms were associated with MAYV when either detected alone or co-detected with DENV, compared to that when DENV was detected alone. Most MAYV-infected subjects were women with no recent travel history to rural/sylvatic areas. Phylogenetic reconstruction indicated that the MAYV identified in this study is closely related with a lineage observed in Peru, belonging to genotype D. Our results corroborate the growing circulation of MAYV in urban environments in Brazil and reinforce the need to implement laboratory diagnosis in the Unified Health System, considering that the clinical manifestations of Mayaro fever are similar to those of other arboviruses, particularly dengue. Furthermore, most cases occurred in association with DENV-2. Further phylogenetic studies are needed to evaluate MAYV, which has not been widely examined.