Aetiological agents of viral diarrhoea

Acute diarrhoeal diseases have been recognized as a major public health problem, which occurs in both epidemic it and endemic forms. The paper presents results of the aetiological agents of viral diarrhoea from a two year study on the aetology of diarrhoea in the first three years of life. Viral agents were found in 22.2§ of the total diarrhoea cases. Major viral agents were Rotavirus 13.9% Adenovirus 5.9% small round virus [SRV] 3% and corona viruses in 0.4% of the cases. In the control group, Rota virus was present in 3.8% followed by Adenovirus 2.7% and SRV in 917 of the total cases

Prevalence of throat infections in school children of Islamabad with special reference to streptococcal infections: I

A total number of 310 school children of both sexes under the age of 15 year, were investigated randomly for throat flora. It was revealed that 41.9% had bacterial pathogens isolated, comprising of Streptococcus group A [13%], Streptococcus non group A [14%] and Staphylococcus coagulase positive [13.9%], while Klebsiella pneumonae and Pseudomonas sp. were less than 1%. The rest of the pupils had normal throat flora. There was slight female preponderance to straptococcal infection. The pupils who had streptococcal infection, majority of them had raised anti-streptolysin [ASO] titre, enlarged tonsils and palpable tonsillar lymphnodes. Additional complaints of cold, cough and recurrent sore throat were also present in most of streptococcal group A positive group. There was declining tendency of streptococcal group A infection with increasing age

Food hygiene with reference to public health viable bacterial counts of ready to eat foods served in Rawalpindi, Islamabad

Bacterial loads of street served foods and cut fruits sold in open market was assessed. The mean viable plate count was 2.4x107/gm, highest being 7x10 /gm found in meat group foods. Eighteen percent food samples, mostly, either processed foods, carbonated drinks or foods served boiling hot were found sterile. All other foods examined yielded very high standard aerobic plate count per gram, indicating inadequate hygienic conditions of the retail shops

Detection and enumeration of fecal coliforms and other microorganisms in drinking water: a comparative of two techniques

Comparative efficacy of two water analysing techniques, based on bacterial analysis has been investigated. Method of Rand et al with some alterations has proved to be ideal as it provides information on presumptive coliform, feacal coliforms, standard plate counts and confirms the identity of the isolates. Moreover, the improvised method is less time consuming and is comparatively inexpensive