Measles vaccination

RevisiónMeasles is known as one of the most infections and persistent of human viral diseases. Its distribution is worldwide and it causes disease in any climate and under any condition provided that enough susceptible human beings are brought together to enable its spread. Measles in developing countries occurs at a much younger age compared with developed countries. In developed countries measles epidemics are closely tied to the school years, building up to a peak in the late spring and ceasing abruptly after the summer has begun. Live attenuated measles virus vaccine is usually administrated before the age of 1 year. This vaccine is heat and light sensitive and this constitute the major problem, particularly in less developed countries where maintenance of a reliable cold chain is often difficult. Measles maternal antibody persists in the infant for most of the first year of life. This antibody interferes with the response to measles vaccine. Failure to seroconvert could be due to primary vaccine failure which is generally attributed to neutralisation of the attenuated vaccine virus by persistent maternal antibody in infants younger than 12 months of age or to inadequate immunisation as a consequence of bad storage conditions and handling or secondary vaccine failure which refers to the development of clinically apparent measles infection despite an immune response to initial vaccination. Early two-dose measles vaccination was associated with improved coverage and a comparably high level of humoral immunity and clinical protection as a single dose at age >= 12 months.N

Influenza A(H1N1) pandemic: 2 years after

RevisiónIn 2009, the emergence of the new H1N1 influenza virus saw the world brace itself for the first influenza pandemic since 1968. Two years after, it is time to evaluate the situation of that Influenza A(H1N1) pandemic and its combat measures.N

Studies on the function of the human adrenal cortex in obesity and Cushing's syndrome

It is now well established that either primary or secondary effects of the adrenocortical hormones affect the kidney function, sweat and saliva, cardiovascular system, nervous system, muscle function, carbohydrate metabolism, protein metabolism, fat metabolism, vitamin metabolism, electrolyte and water metabolism, lymphoid tissue, reticuloendothelial and mast cells, blood and bone marrow, malignancy, bone, skin and hair, appetite, resistance to damage, cellular reaction to inflammation and injury, sensitivity and antigen-antibody reactions, susceptibility to infection,thyroid gland, gonads and lactation (Pincus, 1962). Thus, it seems that there are few, if any, tissues or bodily processes which are not influenced by adrenocortical hormones.However, we owe our present-day concept of the importance of the adrenal cortex to the early observation of Addison (1855) who described the clinical features of the disease bearing his name, and who suggested that these glands are essential to health and that death occurred in their absence.Soon after, Brown-Sequard (1856) proved the vital importance of the adrenal glands by his studies of the effects of bilateral adrenalectomy in experimental animals. But it was not until the beginning of this century that serious attempts were made to prolong the life span of adrenalectomised animals by injection of the adrenocortical extract.The success of these experiments started an avalanche of investigations aiming at isolation and chemical identification of the active principle. Thus in 1930 an extract of the adrenal cortex was prepared simultaneously by two groups of workers; Hartman and Brownell, and Swingle and Pfiffner, and soon after, isolation of the Individual active hormones began . It was the work of Wintersteiner, Kendall, Reichstein and their associates (Wintersteiner and Ffiffnsr, 1936; Mason et al, 1937; Mason et al, 1938; Reichstein and Schoppee, 1943) that made possible the chemical identification of a large group of the adrenocortical hormones and shed more light on their physiological significance. Since then, more than sixty adrenocortical hormones have been isolated and identified.Semiquantitative tests for the assessment of adrenocortical function, by making use of the laboratory animals, started in 1938 when Anderson and Haymaker prolonged the life of adrenalectoraised dogs by injecting them with sera from patients suffering from Cushing's syndrome; adrenalectomised dogs injected with sera from normal subjects acted as controls. Other biological tests were also used in these early days, such as assessment of the degree of protection from exposure to cold after injection of serum, the use of urinary extracts to measure the survival time of adrenalectomised rats on exposure to cold, the degree of deposition of liver glycogen in fasting adrenalectomised rats, the extent of fall of circulating eosinophils in the adrenalectomised mice or the degree of sodium retention and potassium excretion in the adrenalectomised rats.Chemical tests for the quantitative estimation of adrenocortical function started in 1945 when Talbot and co-workers estimated the urinary corticosteroids by a colorimetric reaction and Hemphill and Reiss (1947) using the same colorimetric reaction to estimate corticosteroids in blood. These methods lacked specificity but, since then, marked advances in the field of chemical analysis and estimation of adrenocortical hormones have occurred with the result that a great number of simple and reliable tests of adrenocortical function have been introduced. These tests are nowadays of an immense help to both the clinician, helping him to combat the various adrenocortical dysfunctions, and the biochemist, helping him to clarify further the role of the adrenal cortex in human life

Haemophilus influenzae type b pneumonia in Egyptian children under five years: A step toward the identification of the real burden in our community by the use of real-time polymerase chain reaction

Haemophilus influenzae (Hi) causes more than 3 million cases of serious disease, mainly meningitis and pneumonia in children less than 5 years old with approximately 386,000 deaths each year worldwide. The presence or absence of a polysaccharide capsule is an important distinguishing characteristic of H. influenzae species. The polysaccharide capsule can be serologically classified into six serotypes (a to f). Invasive Hi diseases in children were almost exclusively caused by serotype b (Hib). To the best of our knowledge, the real burden of Hib pneumonia in Egypt is not clarified. Yet, few studies are published and concerned with Hib sepsis among neonates or Hib meningitis in children. We aimed in this study to identify the frequency of Hib pneumonia among Egyptian children below five years by the use of real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique, with insight on antimicrobial resistance of Hib strains in the Egyptian community. One hundred patients with community-acquired pneumonia were investigated for Hib by both real-time PCR and bacterial culture. Haemophilus influenzae type b was diagnosed in 31% of the examined population by PCR, with sensitivity of 100% (95% CI: 0.86–1), specificity 100% (65% CI: 0.93–1), positive predictive value (PPV) 100% (95% CI: 0.83–1), and negative predictive value (NPV) 100% (95% CI: 0.93–1). Blood culture was positive in 12 patients only, with a sensitivity of 38% (95% CI: 0.22–0.57), a specificity of 100% (65% CI: 0.93–1), PPV 100% (95% CI: 0.69–1), and NPV 77% (95% CI: 0.68–0.86). Isolated Hib strains were sensitive to ceftriaxon in 91% of cases, followed by ampicillins in 31% and cotrimoxazole in 17%. Three patients had multidrug resistant strains of Hib.Conclusion: Haemophilus influenzae type b infection is still an important and frequent pathogen causing community-acquired pneumonia in Egypt with changeable antibiotic sensitivity pattern. PCR represented a sensitive and rapid tool for the diagnosis of Hib pneumonia. Governmental plans to eradicate Hib in our community with the introduction of Hib conjugate vaccine in the national immunization program became indispensable.Keywords: Haemophilus influenzae type b; Egyptian children; PCR; Culture; Antibiotic sensitivit

VisIVOWeb: A WWW Environment for Large-Scale Astrophysical Visualization

This article presents a newly developed Web portal called VisIVOWeb that aims to provide the astrophysical community with powerful visualization tools for large-scale data sets in the context of Web 2.0. VisIVOWeb can effectively handle modern numerical simulations and real-world observations. Our open-source software is based on established visualization toolkits offering high-quality rendering algorithms. The underlying data management is discussed with the supported visualization interfaces and movie-making functionality. We introduce VisIVOWeb Network, a robust network of customized Web portals for visual discovery, and VisIVOWeb Connect, a lightweight and efficient solution for seamlessly connecting to existing astrophysical archives. A significant effort has been devoted for ensuring interoperability with existing tools by adhering to IVOA standards. We conclude with a summary of our work and a discussion on future developments

Detection of Building Damage Using Helmholtz Tomography

High‐rise buildings with dense permanent installations of continuously recording accelerometers offer a unique opportunity to observe temporal and spatial variations in the propagation properties of seismic waves. When precise, floor‐by‐floor measurements of frequency‐dependent travel times can be made, accurate models of material properties (e.g., stiffness or rigidity) can be determined using seismic tomographic imaging techniques. By measuring changes in the material properties, damage to the structure can be detected and localized after shaking events such as earthquakes. Here, seismic Helmholtz tomography is applied to simulated waveform data from a high‐rise building, and its feasibility is demonstrated. A 52‐story dual system building—braced‐frame core surrounded by an outrigger steel moment frame—in downtown Los Angeles is used for the computational basis. It is part of the Community Seismic Network and has a three‐component accelerometer installed on every floor. A finite‐element model of the building based on structural drawings is used for the computation of synthetic seismograms for 60 damage scenarios in which the stiffness of the building is perturbed in different locations across both adjacent and distributed floors and to varying degrees. The dynamic analysis loading function is a Gaussian pulse applied to the lowest level fixed boundary condition, producing a broadband response on all floors. After narrowband filtering the synthetic seismograms and measuring the maximum amplitude, the frequency‐dependent travel times and differential travel times are computed. The travel‐time and amplitude measurements are converted to shear‐wave velocity at each floor via the Helmholtz wave equation whose solutions can be used to track perturbations to wavefronts through densely sampled wavefields. These results provide validation of the method’s application to recorded data from real buildings to detect and locate structural damage using earthquake, explosion, or ambient seismic noise data in near‐real time

Detection of Building Damage Using Helmholtz Tomography

High‐rise buildings with dense permanent installations of continuously recording accelerometers offer a unique opportunity to observe temporal and spatial variations in the propagation properties of seismic waves. When precise, floor‐by‐floor measurements of frequency‐dependent travel times can be made, accurate models of material properties (e.g., stiffness or rigidity) can be determined using seismic tomographic imaging techniques. By measuring changes in the material properties, damage to the structure can be detected and localized after shaking events such as earthquakes. Here, seismic Helmholtz tomography is applied to simulated waveform data from a high‐rise building, and its feasibility is demonstrated. A 52‐story dual system building—braced‐frame core surrounded by an outrigger steel moment frame—in downtown Los Angeles is used for the computational basis. It is part of the Community Seismic Network and has a three‐component accelerometer installed on every floor. A finite‐element model of the building based on structural drawings is used for the computation of synthetic seismograms for 60 damage scenarios in which the stiffness of the building is perturbed in different locations across both adjacent and distributed floors and to varying degrees. The dynamic analysis loading function is a Gaussian pulse applied to the lowest level fixed boundary condition, producing a broadband response on all floors. After narrowband filtering the synthetic seismograms and measuring the maximum amplitude, the frequency‐dependent travel times and differential travel times are computed. The travel‐time and amplitude measurements are converted to shear‐wave velocity at each floor via the Helmholtz wave equation whose solutions can be used to track perturbations to wavefronts through densely sampled wavefields. These results provide validation of the method’s application to recorded data from real buildings to detect and locate structural damage using earthquake, explosion, or ambient seismic noise data in near‐real time

Calcium Carbonate Suppresses Haem Toxicity Markers without Calcium Phosphate Side Effect on Colon Carcinogenesis

Red meat intake is associated with increased risk of colorectal cancer. We have previously shown that haemin, haemoglobin and red meat promote carcinogen-induced preneoplastic lesions, aberrant crypt foci, in the colon of rats. We have also shown that dietary calcium phosphate inhibits haemin-induced promotion, and normalizes faecal lipoperoxides and cytotoxicity. Unexpectedly, high-calcium phosphate control diet-fed rats had more preneoplastic lesions in the colon than low-calcium control diet-fed rats. The present study was designed to find a calcium supplementation with no adverse effect, by testing several doses and types of calcium salts. One in vitro study and two short-term studies in rats identified calcium carbonate as the most effective calcium salt to bind haem in vitro and to decrease faecal biomarkers previously associated with increased carcinogenesis: faecal water cytotoxicity, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances. A long term carcinogenesis study in dimethylhydrazine-injected rats demonstrated that a diet containing 100 µmol/g calcium carbonate did not promote aberrant crypt foci, in contrast with previously tested calcium phosphate diet. The results suggest that calcium carbonate, and not calcium phosphate, should be used to reduce haem-associated colorectal cancer risk in meat-eaters. They support the concept that the nature of the associated anion to a protective metal ion is important for chemoprevention