Different types of shigella species isolated from Infectious Diseases Hospital during 1996 and their antibiotic susceptibility patterns

Cross sectional descriptive hospital-based study using convenience sampling method was carried out among 53 dysentery cases admitted to Infectious Diseases Hospital from March to September 1996. It consisted of 67.9 per cent males and 32.1 per cent females. Their ages ranged from one year three months to 80 years. The duration of illness before attending the hospital was one to seven days. They passed motions 16 to 20 times per day. Volume of stool output was small in 62.3 per cent, moderate in 28.3 per cent, with mucus in 62.3 per cent and with blood and mucus in 35.9 per cent. Shigellae was isolated from 45.3 per cent of the cases: Shigella flexneri 2a (54.2 per cent), Shigella dysenteriae A type I (29.2 per cent), Shigella boydii (12.5 per cent) and Shigella sonnei (4.2 per cent). The antibiotic susceptibility pattern revealed that 87.5 per cent of shigellae were resistant to ampicillin, 83.3 per cent to chloramphenicol, 33.3 per cent to cephalothin, 37.5 per cent to furazolidone, 33.3 per cent to nalidixic acid, 83.3 per cent to streptomycin, 91.7 per cent to tetracycline and 33.3 per cent to norfloxacin respectively. It was also noted that 91.7 per cent of shigellae were sensitive to amikacin, 91.7 per cent to augmentin, 83.3 per cent to gentamicin, 58.3 per cent to minocycline, 91.7 per cent to neti1imicin, 66.7 per cent to neomycin, 75 per cent to sisomycin and 62.5 per cent to norfloxacin.

Clinical trial to determine the antidiarrhoeal potential of traditional medicine formulations TMFs-16, TMF-35a and TMF-43

Clinical trial to determine the therapeutic efficacy of three Traditional Medicine Formulations, claimed to have antidiarrhoeal action, were studied on 150 acute diarrhoeal patients admitted to the Infectious Diseases Hospital, Yangon. TMF-16 was found to possess a good antidiarrhoeal action with the antidiarrhoeal index (ADI) of 28.71 percent, which is approximately equal to that of the standard drug, loparamide which had the ADI of 27.94 percent. TMF-35a also possess a mild to moderate antidiarrhoeal action (ADI = 21.5 percent), but TMF-43 showed little or no antidiarrhoeal action (ADI = 9.64 percent). The cllinical significance of the study is that both TMF-16 and loparamide were found to reduce the stool output as well as the amount of fluid replacement required. TMF-16 is well tolerated, available locally and cheaply, and thus, may prove beneficial in the symptomatic relief of non-specific acute diarrhoea.

Ovservations on the incidence of systemic diseases involvement in clinical and autopsy material at the Defence Services General Hospital, Mingaladon

The incidence of systemic diseases involvement in clinical and autopsy material of the Defence Services General Hospital, Mingaladon has been investigated into. In both males and females, G. I. tract disorders were found to constitute the highest incidence, 22.30 per cent and 21.6 per cent respectively. In paediatrics also, the incidence for G. I. tract disorders was found to be the highest: 54.3 percent. Among causes for mortality, Neoplasias gave 20.8 per cent. G.I. tract disorders gave 36.4 per cent of total autopsy cases.

Scrub typhus in Burma

Forty-one cases of scrub typhus in the Defence Services General Hospital, Mingaladon and the No. I, Base Military Hospital, Maymyo were studied between November 1965 and December 1966. The frequency of primary eschar was found to vary with different series. Analysis of the clinical features not attributable to CNS revealed that 73.4 per cent had eschars, 90 per cent had lymphaodenpathy, 41.5 per cent had splenomegaly and 65.9 per cent had hepatomegaly. All the 41 cases showed a prompt response to chloramphenicol and tetracycline.