A clinical study on trichinosis in Changwat Phayao, Thailand.

An epidemic of trichinosis occurred in Northern Thailand. The source meat was a 150 kg hilltribe pig. A clinical investigation was conducted using indirect IgG ELISA as a criteria for diagnosis. 52 suspected cases who had eaten the trichinous pork and developed relevant symptoms were hospitalized. 49 of them gave positive ELISA within 64 days after infection. The most common clinical features were myalgia (100%), fever (93.88%) and facial edema (87.71%). Diarrhea was found in approximately one half of the patients (55.10%). Skin rashes of various types were unexpectedly high (40.82%).

Pollen in Bangkok metropolis: II. allergenic importance and cross reactivity among pollen.

By the intracutanous test using 14 different kinds of pollen extracts in 1,007 allergic rhinitis patients, we have found that 84.72 percent of these patients gave more than two plus reaction to Bermuda grass extract, 82.10 percent to careless weed, 79.10 percent to Para grass, 76.51 percent to cane, 70.60 percent to Sedge, 68.11 percent to Acacia and 61.50 percent to Ferns. Other pollen extracts gave less than 50 percent of positive skin test reaction; they are English plantain, Pyrethrum, Johnson grass Crysanthemum, Corn, Sunflower and Palm listed in decreasing order. There was no direct relationship between the incidence of atmospheric pollen and the positive skin test reaction. However, grass and weed pollen are the most frequently encountered and also the most potent allergenic pollen. It was also proved that there was significant correlation between the skin test reaction of different kinds of grass pollen and also between weeds and pollen other than grass. This implied that there was probable cross-reactivity among all kinds of pollen which was relevant to the findings from other studies using more sophisticated test methods. But it should be emphasized that although they share some allergens, each kind of pollen also possesses its unique allergen.

Plasmodium falciparum infection in Bisazir chemosterilized Anopheles dirus in laboratory studies.

Bisazir, at a 0.5% solution induced sterility in males and at a 1.5% solution in female A. dirus. These sterilizing doses reduced P. falciparum infection in mosquitoes, however, they can still transmit malaria. It is concluded that by the concentration of 1.5 and 2.0% that induced complete sterility in males and females are not safe in sterile-male release programme for the control of A. dirus, unless all females were eliminated prior to release.

Esterase patterns of Anopheles dirus (Bangkok strain) and Anopheles balabacensis (Perlis form) in the laboratory.

Esterase isoenzyme were performed in Anopheles balabacensis (Perlis Form) and Anopheles dirus (Bangkok Strain and Kanchanaburi Strain). The zymogram showed four positions, E1, E2, E3 and E4. Seventy-five percent of An. balabacensis (Perlis Form) or An. dirus (Bangkok Strain) can be correctly diagnosed by the presence of fast band in E3 or super slow band in E3 respectively. Homozygous slow band of E3 cannot be fully distinguished in both species, but by the combination of E2 and E3, 99.42% can be correctly identified to differentiate species.

Studies on the effect of folic acid supplement on folate and vitamin B12 status in children.

The effect of folic acid supplement (15 mg folic acid per day) for 5 weeks was studied on a group of 5 children aged 8-12 years who were admitted to hospital. The result was compared to a control group of 5 children who were given a placebo. After supplementation, both serum and red cell folate levels in the experimental group significantly increased, i.e., 15 fold (82.0 ng/ml) and 4 fold (880 ng/ml), respectively. Serum UFBP decreased considerably while TFBP showed no significant alteration which resulted in the elevation of the % saturation to its maximum value. These findings indicated that the supplementary folic acid not only increased both serum and red cell folate levels and saturated nearly all serum UFBP but also elevated the % saturation markedly. There were no definite changes of serum vitamin B12, UBBC, TBBC and TC levels of the experimental group from those of the control group. There were slightly but not significantly increased blood haemoglobin and haematocrit levels in both groups of children. This indicated that folic acid supplement had no definite effect on vitamin B12 and haematological findings in this study.