NIPH annals最新文献

Study objective: to present time variations in the incidence of injuries on a community level.

Population and methods: all injuries which occurred in a defined population of the municipality of Harstad were registered prospectively from 1 January 1986 to 31 December 1991. Variations over time in monthly incidence of seven types of injuries (home, traffic, street, sports, work, other, unknown) were analysed by the Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average Analysis (ARIMA).

Results: a total of 9,685 injuries was registered during the six year follow-up period. No significant secular trend was observed for any of the analysed types of injuries. Series of monthly incidence of traffic, street, and sports injuries showed seasonal-dependent variations. Incidence of traffic injuries was highest during the summer months, while incidence of sports and street injuries was highest during the winter months.

Conclusions: both the existence of seasonal dependency in injury incidence and the relatively high random variations in monthly injury incidence imply that evaluation of community based injury control programmes should include incidence during at least a one year period before the intervention has started.

The note contains a brief summary of the method in use at the National Institute of Public Health for the production of monoclonal antibodies in mouse ascitic fluid. This method of obtaining large amounts of monoclonal antibodies is widely used. Refining the in vivo method and increasing the yield from each mouse could result in a reduction of the number of animals used.

To bypass natural resistance against Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection, a granuloma pouch model to be experimentally infected was established in rats. This experimental model also permitted easy collection of wound exudate. In general, the animals either died or became very ill and were consequently sacrificed within the first 12 days, or they (6 of 16) survived in good condition after 20 days. The virulence of recently isolated strains compared to twelve-months old subcultures of the same strains showed no major differences in clinical pattern. In the first seven days following the start of the infection, all animals presented a fall of elastase activity in the wound exudate. Toxin A was present in the exudate, sometimes in relatively high levels, but there was no correlation between toxin level and the clinical development. As a rule, spontaneous rupture of the granuloma pouch, apparently unrelated to the concentrations of either elastase or toxin A in the exudate, was beneficial to survival. In the present experimental infectious context, neither P. aeruginosa elastase nor toxin A seemed to play any isolated lethal nor pathogenetic role.

The Sogn and Fjordane Injury Prevention Programme is a community-based research and demonstration project located in the Sogn and Fjordane county (S&F county) in Western Norway. The aim of the project is: (i) to further effective intervention; (ii) to be cost-effective; (iii) to provide information about local community based injury intervention. Liaison groups on injury prevention will be organised in 24 communities participating in the project. Starting 1 April 1993 they will be supplied with local specific injury rates obtained from the all-injury registration of the National Injury Surveillance System. The intervention design includes feedback of three types of information: (1) home and traffic injury rates; (2) sports, occupational, school, and outdoor injury rates; (3) both (1) + (2). The liaison groups will be asked to concentrate their activities only on the information-related injury areas. The hypothesis is that the results will be information-related. The intervention protocol will last for two years, until 1 April 1995. Evaluation will be based on a hypothetical causal intervention model. The model includes three groups of independent influences, two groups of mediator attributes, and desired end-result. A variety of data sources will be used including national and local data sources, two cross-sectional surveys on awareness, knowledge, behaviour and attitudes, interviews, observations, and self-reports from individuals. A mixed-model ANOVA will be used to test the main information-related effects. A combination of multivariate analytical methods will be used to test the hypothesised causal intervention model.

Ceratophyllus vagabundus insularis was recorded in all typical nesting cliffs in mainland Norway in nests of puffins, shags, cormorants, and kittiwakes, but not in nests of gulls. Ceratophyllus vagabundus vagabundus was recorded in Spitzbergen associated with geese and gulls. Ceratophyllus garei, the only flea species in Larus gull's nests, was present in small numbers in nests of kittiwakes and shags in the southern part of the investigation area. Mioctenopsylla arctica arctica was recorded in kittiwake nests on Spitzbergen and in one nesting cliff in the most arctic part of mainland Norway, where it also was the dominating species. C. vagabundus was reported to attack man.

The epidemiology of meningococcal disease (MCd) in Norway is described on the basis of official notification figures for 1975-91. Morbidity is presented by serogroup of the isolated Neisseria meningitidis strain, time of onset of the disease in addition to the place of living, age and sex of the patient. A long-term group B epidemic with high incidence and case fatality rates in the age groups below 5 years and between 13 and 19-20 years is the main characteristics of the situation.

The Cuban vaccine, first in the world with proven efficacy against group B-caused disease, is based on outer membrane proteins from B meningococci capable of inducing long-lasting and high-titered bactericidal antibodies in humans. This bactericidal activity has a wide spectrum against all pathogenic group B Neisseria meningitidis tested. A randomized, double-blind controlled trial of the vaccine efficacy was performed during 1987-1989 with 106,000 10-14 years old students from 197 boarding schools in seven provinces. The efficacy obtained was 83% (chi 2, p less than 0.002; Fischer exact, p less than 0.001). In a second field trial including 133,600 persons from 5 months to 24 years of age in Ciego de Avila province (30 cases/10(5) inhabitants, the highest incidence rate in Cuba) by comparing vaccinated and non-vaccinated population after 2.5 years of observation and careful follow-up, the efficacy and safety was confirmed. Because of these results and because of the very low reactogenicity of the vaccine, the Ministry of Public Health took the advice of the Scientific Council to vaccinate all children between 3 months and 6 years of age in the most affected provinces. No severe or long lasting reactions to the vaccine were observed after the millions of doses administered. The efficacy of vaccination varied in the provinces between 83% and 94%, among age groups ranging from 3 months and 20 years. After 3 years of massive application no severe reactions occurred and one of the most severe epidemics has been practically eradicated.

Outer membrane protein vaccines have now been demonstrated to be effective in prevention of group B Neisseria meningitidis disease, but the extent and duration of protection needs improvement. To develop a second generation outer membrane protein vaccine we have begun studies to evaluate vaccines containing iron regulated proteins in lipopolysaccharide depleted outer membrane vesicles. Since the iron regulated proteins are critical for in vivo survival, it is our working hypothesis that antibodies to these proteins will either be bactericidal or block iron uptake. Four representative strains were selected, and preliminary studies indicate that vaccines containing the iron regulated proteins are immunogenic in mice.