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Introduction: The severity of COVID-19 in the general population ranges from minimally symptomatic disease to critical illness, which may require hospitalization and progress to death., Methods: A retrospective cohort study carried out with all positive cases of COVID-19 reported in the municipality of Foz do Iguaçu (PR) between the period from March 2020 to December 2021. Data were collected from Bank Notifies COVID-19 is the name of the information system that provides notifications by professionals of suspected and confirmed cases of the disease. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistical techniques and calculation of relative risk., Results: 24,647 confirmed cases were identified in the study; among these, 22,211 (90.1%) were not hospitalized and 2436 (9.9%) were hospitalized. Among the 2436 patients hospitalized for COVID-19, 947 (38.9%) died and 1489 (61.1%) recovered. Among the 22,211 outpatients, 93 (0.4%) died and 22,118 (99.6%) recovered. An association between death and the following characteristics was identified among the cases that were hospitalized: male gender, all age groups over 40 years, indigenous race/color, hospital staylength of more than 10 days,hospitalization in a Unified Health System (SUS) bed and in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU). According to the clinical characteristics of symptoms and comorbidities, the following prevailed:ities dyspnea, intercostal retraction, cyanosis, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, smoking, lung disease, kidneydisease, neurological disease, neoplasia, and immunodeficiency. Among the cases that were not hospitalized, death was associated with: malegender, all age groups over 50 years, dyspnea, cyanosis, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, neurological disease, neoplasia, and liver disease., Conclusions: Older adults, male, and Caucasian people are commonly affected by COVID-19 and can evolve with aggravation when they have modifiable risk factors such as obesity and smoking, as well as nonmodifiable risk factors such as: cardiovascular disease, neurological disease, renal, hypertension, diabetes, and immunosuppression., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright: © 2024 Journal of Global Infectious Diseases.)

Parental daily care and adequate stimuli are extremely important for development and safety of premature babies at home. This study aimed to analyze safe home care for babies born under 32 weeks from parents' perspectives, with a view to a longitudinal promotion of baby development. A qualitative study, based on philosophical hermeneutic approach proposed by Hans-Georg Gadamer, in which dialogue as a principle provides understanding and fusion of experiences and knowledge. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 parents of premature babies under 1 year of age. Thematic analysis proposed by Braun and Clarke was applied using an inductive approach. Elements related to safe care were identified: home arrival, safe home care: preserving baby health and development, support for safe home care, and development of parental care to promote baby safety. These elements can provide a basis for safe home care that needs to be reinforced longitudinally to increase particularities of baby protection, avoid accidents and illnesses, and improve appropriate developmental stimuli and positive parenting., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Purpose: Trypanosoma caninum exhibits atypical epimastigote forms under axenic conditions. This study aimed to analyze this evolutionary form under different cultivation conditions and provide more information about this evolutionary form., Methods: We selected a T. caninum isolate with a high percentage of aflagellar epimastigote forms in axenic cultures. Two separate growth curves were generated for T. caninum cultured in Schneider axenic medium and co-cultured with the DH82 cell line, followed by analysis and quantification of evolutionary forms using bright field microscopy. In addition, ultrastructural analysis of T. caninum was performed under both cultivation conditions., Results: The growth curves of T. caninum under axenic and co-cultivation conditions exhibited similar profiles. However, in the axenic culture, the number of parasites was three times higher at the peak of the exponential phase than in the co-culture. In contrast to that in the axenic culture, in which only the epimastigote forms were observed along the entire curve, during co-cultivation with the DH82 cell line, differentiation was observed for the trypomastigote and spheromastigote forms in low proportions. These results demonstrated that when cultured alone, the T. caninum isolate preserved the aflagellar epimastigote form, but in the presence of DH82 canine macrophages, they differentiated into evolutionary forms, particularly trypomastigote forms. Moreover, this study is the first to describe the presence of lipid bodies, structure described as the parasite's nutritional reserve, throughout the body of T. caninum., Conclusions: These findings describe biological and ultrastructural aspects of epimastigote aflagellar and suggest that this evolutionary form may be involved in the biological cycle of T. caninum, still unknown., (© 2022. The Author(s) under exclusive licence to Witold Stefański Institute of Parasitology, Polish Academy of Sciences.)

Background: Lutzomyia longipalpis-derived cell line (Lulo) has been suggested as a model for studies of interaction between sandflies and Leishmania., Objectives: Here, we present data of proteomic and gene expression analyses of Lulo cell related to interactions with Leishmania (Viannia) braziliensis., Methods: Lulo cell protein extracts were analysed through a combination of two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry and resulting spots were further investigated in silico to identify proteins using Mascot search and, afterwards, resulting sequences were applied for analysis with VectorBase., Results: Sixty-four spots were identified showing similarities to other proteins registered in the databases and could be classified according to their biological function, such as ion-binding proteins (23%), proteases (14%), cytoskeletal proteins (11%) and interactive membrane proteins (9.5%). Effects of interaction with L. (V.) braziliensis with the expression of three genes (enolase, tubulin and vacuolar transport protein) were observed after an eight-hour timeframe and compared to culture without parasites, and demonstrated the impact of parasite interaction with the expression of the following genes: LLOJ000219 (1.69-fold), LLOJ000326 (1.43-fold) and LLOJ006663 (2.41-fold)., Conclusions: This set of results adds relevant information regarding the usefulness of the Lulo cell line for studies with Leishmania parasites that indicate variations of protein expression.