Prevalence of hepatitis B e antigen in pregnant women and patients with liver disease.

Knowledge of HBeAg status is important in pregnant women to decide immunoprophylaxis to the infant and to decide therapy in patients with HBsAg positive chronic active hepatitis. Two thousand pregnant women were tested for HBsAg by the Hoechst IHA Cellognost Kit. Those who were HBsAg positive were tested for HBeAg by ELISA (Hoechst). One hundred consecutive HBsAg positive patients admitted in hospital were tested for HBeAg by Elisa (Abott). The prevalence of HBsAg and HBeAg in pregnant women was 5% (100/2000) and 12% (12/100) respectively. The prevalence of HBeAg in the 100 consecutive HBsAg positive patients with liver diseas was 30% (14/46) in acute viral hepatitis and 52% (28/54) in chronic liver disease. Routine screening of all pregnant women in the third trimester for HBsAg and immunoprophylaxis to infants of BHeAg positive mothers atleast is immediately recommended.

Isolation of Legionella pneumophila from patients of respiratory tract disease & environmental samples.

In this preliminary study 45 patients suffering from pneumonia were screened for L. pneumophila. Also 17 random environmental samples viz., water from cooling system used for air-conditioning units and samples from respirator-humidifier were screened. Four of 45 (9%) clinical specimens and 13 of 17 (76%) environmental samples showed presence of L. pneumophila. This is the first report from India of the isolation on L. pneumophila.

Isolation of Helicobacter pylori from dental plaques in healthy volunteers.

The presence of Helicobacter pylori (H pylori) was looked for in dental plaques of 40 healthy volunteers by CLO test, culture and smear stained with Warthin-Starry stain. H pylori was found to be present in the dental plaques of all 40 volunteers. The dental plaque is an important reservoir of H pylori.