Still Searching for a Suitable Molecular Test to Detect Hidden Plasmodium Infection: A Proposal for Blood Donor Screening in Brazil

Efforts have been made to establish sensitive diagnostic tools for malaria screening in blood banks in order to detect malaria asymptomatic carriers. Microscopy, the malaria referencetest in Brazil, is time consuming and its sensitivity depends on microscopist experience. Although molecular tools are available, some aspects need to be considered for large-scale screening: accuracy and robustness for detecting low parasitemia, afford ability for application to large number of samples and flexibility to perform on individual or pooled samples...

Pathology of congenital Zika syndrome in Brazil: a case series

Zika virus is an arthropod-borne virus that is a member of the family Flaviviridae transmitted mainly by mosquitoes of the genus Aedes. Although usually asymptomatic, infection can result in a mild and self-limiting illness characterised by fever, rash, arthralgia, and conjunctivitis. An increase in the number of children born with microcephaly was noted in 2015 in regions of Brazil with high transmission of Zika virus. More recently, evidence has been accumulating supporting a link between Zika virus and microcephaly. Here, we describe findings from three fatal cases and two spontaneous abortions associated with Zika virus infection.