Nowadays, the metagenomic approach has been a very important tool in the discovery of new viruses in environmental and biological samples. Here we discuss how these discoveries may help to elucidate the etiology of diseases and the criteria necessary to establish a causal association between a virus and a disease.

OBJECTIVE : To analyze studies that evaluated the role of infections as well as indirect measures of exposure to infection in the risk of childhood leukemia, particularly acute lymphoblastic leukemia. METHODS : A search in Medline, Lilacs, and SciELO scientific publication databases initially using the descriptors “childhood leukemia” and “infection” and later searching for the words “childhood leukemia” and “maternal infection or disease” or “breastfeeding” or “daycare attendance” or “vaccination” resulted in 62 publications that met the following inclusion criteria: […]

OBJECTIVE: Although the relationship between epidemiology and anthropology has a long history, it has generally been comprised of the integration of quantitative and qualitative methods. Only recently have the two fields begun to converge along theoretical lines, leading to a growing mutual interest in explaining rather than simply describing phenomena. This paper aimed to illustrate how ethnographic analyses can be used to assist with the in-depth and theoretically-imbued interpretation of epidemiological results. METHODS: The anthropological analysis presented in this paper […]

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the contribution of work-related diseases to sick leaves due to general and occupational health problems. METHODS: Sociodemographic, occupational and health data from 29,658 records of temporary disability benefits, granted on account of health problems by the Instituto Nacional do Seguro Social (National Institute of Social Security) in the state of Bahia (Northeastern Brazil), were analyzed. All constant ICD-10 clinical diagnoses were taken into consideration, except for those referring to external causes and factors that influence contact with […]

Over the last few years a growing number of retrospective and controlled cross-sectional studies using the odds ratio as a measure of intensity of the association have been published. The objectives of this article are: to compare the odds ratio with the prevalence ratio; to study the behavior of this measure with the sampling variation of the prevalence of the risk factor either in cases or in controls; and to give relevance to the expression of it in terms of […]

The foundations on which the concept of risk has been constructed are discussed. A description of Rubin’s model of causal inference, which was first developed in the domain of applied statistics, and later incorporated into a branch of epidemiology, is taken as the starting point. Analysis of the premisses of causal inference brings to light the logical stages in the construction of the concept of risk, allowing it to be understood “from the inside”. The abovementioned branch of statistics and […]

OBJECTIVES: To describe the Aids mortality according to its underlying and associated causes of death in the State of S. Paulo in 1998. METHODS: Mortality and population data for 1998 were obtained from the State Data Analysis System Department (Fundação Sistema Estadual de Análise de Dados – Seade). Causes of death were coded according to the Tenth Revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. RESULTS: Aids was the underlying cause in 4,619 deaths, corresponding to […]