Escherichia coli strains isolated from sporadic cases of acute diarrhea in children and adults and from children without diarrhea were investigated for the presence of the pAA plasmid. Strains harboring the pAA plasmid were isolated at similar frequencies from children with (19.6%) and without (10.8%) diarrhea and from adults with diarrhea (11.8%). The genotypic and phenotypic virulence markers of these strains were further analyzed. Most of the strains were positive for EAST1 (73%), and this toxin was detected significantly more frequently in strains from children with diarrhea than in strains from adults with diarrhea (P < 0.05). Likewise, pic sequences were detected significantly more frequently in strains from children with diarrhea than in strains from adults with diarrhea (P < 0.005) and controls (P < 0.025). Furthermore, the association of pAA positivity (pAA ؉ ) and pic positivity (pic ؉ ) was more frequently found for strains from children with diarrhea than for strains from controls, indicating that pAA ؉ pic ؉ strains may represent a subset of pAA ؉ strains associated with disease in children. Most of the strains (82.5%) adhered to cells presenting the typical aggregative pattern. The frequency of occurrence of enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) serogroups in the strains from children with diarrhea was very high (56%), while none of the strains from adults with diarrhea belonged to EPEC serogroups. Extraintestinal virulence markers were very commonly found in strains from adults with diarrhea. The frequencies of occurrence of the adhesins AFA and SFA were significantly higher in strains from adults with diarrhea than in strains from children with diarrhea. More than one extraintestinal virulence marker was found in 58% of the strains from adults with diarrhea but in only 7.7% of the strains from children with diarrhea. Our results show that pAA ؉ strains isolated from children and adults with diarrhea present very different profiles when enteroaggregative E. coli virulence markers, serotypes, and extraintestinal virulence markers are considered.Several studies have reported on the association of enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC) with diarrheal disease in children (3,4,13,17,21,23,33). The EAEC pathotype has been defined by its aggregative pattern of adherence to tissue culture cells, but this definition seems to cover heterogeneous groups of strains, as indicated in volunteer studies (26) and investigations of the natural occurrence of the disease (3, 13, 14, 17). Nataro et al. (26) carried out a volunteer study with four different EAEC strains and showed that three of them failed to elicit diarrhea. Several epidemiological studies reported on an association of EAEC strains with sporadic diarrhea, either acute or persistent, and outbreaks in different geographic locations (3,13,17,21,23,33). Furthermore, Steiner et al. (44) reported on an association of EAEC with growth impairment even in the absence of diarrheal symptoms. However, in some case-control investigations, EAEC strains were isolated...

The meningococcal serogroup C conjugate vaccine strategy implemented in Brazil proved highly effective and had a strong direct impact on the target population. However, case fatality rates of meningococcal disease remain high with a wide gap in the risk of disease between poor and affluent areas, pointing to the need to reexamine the current strategy on a regular base.

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Objective: To determine the frequency of capsular serotypes and the antimicrobial susceptibility of strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae, as well as to provide recommendations on the use of available vaccines and antimicrobial drugs. Methods:In this retrospective study, standard procedures were followed to identify, serotype, and determine bacterial susceptibility to penicillin, cefotaxime, and vancomycin. Pneumococcal strains were isolated from the Results: A total of 232 pneumococcal strains were isolated, including 126 (54.31%) strains from male patients.Patients had an age range of 0 to 62 years and were distributed into four age groups: 0 to 5, 6 to 17, 18 to 50, and above 50. From the 36 distinct serotypes identified, eight were more prevalent: 14, 6B, 18C, 5, 19F, 23F, 9V, and 6A. The oxacillin test identified 67 penicillin-resistant strains, out of which 47 were confirmed by the E test as having intermediate level of resistance. None of the strains exhibited high-level resistance. Conclusion:Pneumococcal resistance to penicillin has gradually increased over the last 10 years in Distrito Federal. Serotypes more frequently isolated in the 0 to 5 years age group were the same involved in penicillin-resistance, all of which are covered by the 7-valent vaccine.J Pediatr (Rio J). 2007;83(1):71-8: Pneumococcal meningitis, bacterial resistance to drugs, serotyping, pneumococcal vaccine.

Nowadays, data security is an important issue in telecommunication network to be considered in its implementation and operation. This paper presents the GODZUK cryptographic algorithm in a civilian and military mobile communication applications, as a possible standards chosen by 3GPP for the third generation of cellular telephony and by the Brazilian Army as its symmetric cipher algorithm in tactical and strategic communications.