Resumo: No Brasil, há um limitado número de estudos sobre violência contra mulheres profissionais do sexo, tema que vem instigando pesquisadores em todo o mundo, estimulados principalmente por possíveis associações desta com o HIV. Este trabalho objetiva estimar a prevalência de violência contra mulheres profissionais do sexo, segundo natureza e perpetrador, e identificar os fatores associados. Foi realizado um estudo transversal com dados de 2.523 mulheres profissionais do sexo de dez cidades brasileiras, recrutadas pelo método respondent-driven sampling (RDS). Os resultados mostraram que a prevalência de violência verbal foi de 59,5%; violência física 38,1%; sexual 37,8%. Violência física por parceiro íntimo, 25,2%; por clientes, 11,7%. Dentre os fatores associados à violência física estão: idade < 30 anos (ORa = 2,27; IC95%: 1,56-3,29); uso de drogas (ORa = 2,02; IC95%: 1,54-2,65); valor do programa até R$ 29,00 (ORa = 1,51; IC95%: 1,07-2,13). Conclui-se que as mulheres profissionais do sexo brasileiras vivenciam uma carga desproporcional de violência. Identificar fatores de vulnerabilidade é fundamental para as intervenções que garantam direitos humanos e controle do HIV.

A malaria survey was conducted in an area of high transmission (Costa Marques, Rondonia, Brazil) to determine the prevalence of asymptomatic parasitemia and its clinical significance. Most of the people surveyed were immigrants who had lived in the endemic area < 5 years. The people had easy access to free diagnostic and treatment services at the Malaria Clinic in the town of Costa Marques. The prevalence of plasmodial parasitemia in 344 people was 22%. There were 36 individuals with asymptomatic infections among the 77 parasitemic patients. During the two days following the initial examination, 19 ofthe 36 individuals: with asymptomatic infections developed malaria. Among the 17 patients who remained asymptomatic for > 2 days, 4 had only gametocytes, 1 had taken inadequate anti-malarial treatment, 3 were under treatment and 2 moved. Six asymptomatic patients denied the use of anti-malarial drugs and they developed malaria 3-6 days after the initial parasitological diagnosis. The final patient remained asymptomatic during the 7 day observation period. He had a history of > 40 malaria attacks and denied the use of antimalarial treatment. With the exception of the latter all of the other asymptomatic patients, were either in the incubation period or had been treated It is concluded that asymptomatic malaria is rare in the Costa Marques area and that it is necessary to treat all individuals with plasmodial parasitemia.

With the purpose of identifying risk factors for cutaneous leishmaniasis transmission in children from 0 to 5 years, a matched case-control study was carried out in Corte de Pedra, Bahia, Brazil, an endemic area of Leishmania (Viannia) braziliensis. Children with a positive leishmanin skin test and one or more active lesions or scars consistent with cutaneous leishmaniasis were defined as cases. Forty cases and 71 controls were selected and matched by age and place of residence. The presence of a family member with a history of cutaneous leishmaniasis in the year prior to the appearance of the disease in the child was found to be an important risk factor (MORMH = 17.75; 95%CI: 4.08-77.25). No evidence of association between the disease and other risk factors was found, such as child's habits inside or outside the house, domiciliary or peridomiciliary characteristics, or presence of vectors or probable reservoir animals. These findings support the hypothesis that humans serve as both the reservoir and source of infection for this age group.

Vaccine efficacy (VE) is commonly estimated through proportional hazards modelling of the time to first infection or disease, even when the event of interest can recur. These methods can result in biased estimates when VE is heterogeneous across levels of exposure and susceptibility in subjects. These two factors are important sources of unmeasured heterogeneity, since they vary within and across areas, and often cannot be individually quantified. We propose an estimator of VE per exposure that accounts for heterogeneous susceptibility and exposure for a repeated measures study with binary recurrent outcomes. The estimator requires only information about the probability distribution of environmental exposures. Through simulation studies, we compare the properties of this estimator with proportional hazards estimation under the heterogeneity of exposure. The methods are applied to a reanalysis of a malaria vaccine trial in Brazil.

Resumo O presente artigo tem por finalidade apresentar e discutir os resultados da avaliação das ações iniciais da Política Nacional de Atenção Integral à