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The infiltration of foreign materials not approved for medical purposes or of modeling substances used in soft tissue to modify the anatomical appearance for aesthetic purposes represents a serious health problem. These procedures lead to the development of delayed complications, including infections. The objective of this study was to characterize infections in patients with adverse reactions to the use of modeling substances in Cali, Colombia. A cross-sectional and descriptive study was used to determine the frequency of bacterial and fungal infections associated with complications from and adverse reactions to the use of modeling substances in 113 patients. We identified microorganisms in 22 patients and a frequency of 68.1% monomicrobial infections and 31.8% polymicrobial infections. The microorganisms identified in our study included Bacillus cereus, Mycobacterium fortuitum, and Pseudomonas stutzeri, among other microorganisms. The presence of adverse effects derived from the use of illegal modeling substances has been demonstrated; among these effects, infections occur with high frequency and place the health of the patient at risk and increase problems in health care., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Bonilla Moncada et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Objectives: Determining the relationship between indoor and outdoor air pollution caused by particulate matter PM10 and respiratory symptoms in children aged younger than 5 years-old in three locations in Bogota., Methods: This was a cohort study, involving 315 children in kindergartens located in the area of greatest exposure to PM10, and 304 in kindergartens located in an area of less exposure. The cohort was followed-up for 19 weeks considering respiratory symptoms. Particulate matter was intramurally and extramurally measured in the kindergartens. Prevalence and association between variables were determined., Results: There was a difference regarding average intramural PM between higher and lower exposure (85.6 ug/m³cf 61.8 g/m³; p<0.05); 74.3 % of the children had suffered wheezing during the last year, difference between greater and lesser exposure being 79.6 % cf 69.0 % (p<0.05). Wheezing and coughing were associated with greater exposure to PM10 (RR 1.39 and 1.30). Factors associated with respiratory symptoms concerned passive smoking, having a history of low birth weight, a history of wheezing, a child's kindergarten or home being within 100 meters of (industrial) chimneys, high traffic flow routes, roads in disrepair and bed-sharing., Discussion: A child aged less than 5 years-old exposed to PM10 had a 1.7 times higher risk of truancy due to acute respiratory illness; a decrease in PM10 reduced such truancy by 41.1 %.

Objective: Establishing the prevalence of respiratory symptoms, asthma and rhinitis, possibly associated with air pollution, in 5- to 14-year-old children in Bosa (a conurbation of Bogota), between 2012 and 2013., Methods: A sample was taken of 553 children living in the conurbation., Results: The results indicated that when a child lives with people who smoke there was a 1.5 times risk of coughing at night (compared to living in a non-smoking home) such night-time coughing being different to that produced by respiratory infections such as colds, bronchitis and pneumonia. Children living in homes having fireplaces/open cooking areas located less than 100 m apart had 1.6 times greater probability of presenting symptoms. Children attending schools having greater PM10 exposure and living near buildings being constructed or having roads in a poor state of repair less than 100 meters from their homes were 2.5 times more likely to suffer respiratory disease. Children living in damp rooms were 4 times more likely to have wheezed during the past year. The risk of wheezing became increased by 80 % when a child lived within 100 meters of buildings being constructed or near unpaved roads and attended a school having greater exposure., Conclusion: Government intervention is critical for changing respiratory disease-associated extramural risk factors, such as improvements benefitting children which should be carried out in urban areas.

Unlabelled: Serological identification of Leptospira ssp isolates is difficult to achieve. Thus, molecular testing may be of great interest thanks to its high discrimination power, reproducibility and easy interpretation., Objective: To implement and validate conventional and multiplex PCR methods (using primers directed against lipl32 and secY/flaB genes, respectively). To assess the capacity of PCR methods to identify pathogenic and saprophytic species of Leptospira ssp., Material and Methods: 22 international reference strains and 12 colombian isolates were used. DNA was extracted with a commercial kit (Wizard). Specificity and sensitivity of both PCR methods were evaluated., Results: The maximum dilution of DNA samples allowing the detection of Leptospira ssp was determined to be 1:10000 for the PCR lipL32 and 1:100/1:1000 for the multiplex PCR secY/flaB. Both PCR didn't detect DNA from microorganisms unrelated to Leptospira ssp. The lipL32 PCR specifically amplified a 423 bp fragment from all pathogenic Leptospira reference strains, while the secY/flaB PCR amplified both 285 bp (secY) and 793 bp (flaB) fragments from 18 reference strains. The lipL32 PCR detected 7/12 colombian isolates, while secY/flaB PCR detected both secY and flaB genes from 6/12 isolates., Conclusions: Best results were obtained with the lipL32 PCR, which displayed a better sensitivity and a better capacity to detect different strains than the multiplex PCR. The secY primers showed a poor specificity to pathogenic species and a poor sensitivity. Thus, lipL32 primers show high potential for molecular diagnosis of Leptospira spp in clinical and environmental samples.