Studies of Facility Care and Home Care for the Aged in a Rural Community / 日本農村医学会雑誌

A survey was made of the state of home care for healthy old folks and those elderly patients who have been disabled by illness or injury, and the care provided by institutions in six areas throughout the nation.<BR>The number of healthy old people was larger in women than in men. However, men had the edgeon women in Activity Daily Living (ADL). Compared to the healthy aged people, many ill or disabled elderly patients receiving home care were found to be suffering from anemia, low cholesterol level, hypoproteinemia, and poor glucose-tolerance. The major cause of disability was cerebral apoplexy. Recently, the cases of cerebral hemorrhage have decreased in number, and the rate of death in acute stage has notability declined ; however, the incidence of cerebral infarction is on the increase among the aged.<BR>There are limits to care for disabled elderly patients at home by the family because of the aging of their spouses and the increasing trend toward the nuclear family. Many of those who look after the sick persons are crying for expert help and services capable of coping with a sudden change in the patient's condition. Hence the need to establish a 24-hour home care providing system. It is desirable to establish old people's homes, as residential care institusion, in alignment with hospitals. This system would facilitate hospitalization in case of emergency. To execute care programs more effectively, close collaboration will be necessary among hospital, home care services, clinics, local governments, agricultural cooperatives, and neighborhood associations.

Examination of the Ticks, <I>Ixodes nipponensis</I> Parasitic on Man through a Scanning Electron Microscope / 日本農村医学会雑誌

We used a scanning electron microscope for identification of the two ticks which were found parasitic on two women.<BR>(1) The patients were women of 69 and 62 years old.The main complaints were a tumour-formation on the skin of the upper abdominal region with itching in one case and the pain at the cicatrice of a past operation of the chest in another.In both cases a purulent inflamation appeared after 7 to 10 days at the site of bite and healed after 10 to 14 days with pigmentation.<BR>(2) In our study through a scanning electron microscope we examined the morphological characters of marginal body setae, porose area, internal as well as external spurs of coxa I, and genital pore. The scanning electron microscope was effective especially to observe marginal body setae, spiracular plate, and internal as well as external spurs of coxa I, which are important for discriminating <I>Ixodes nipponensis</I> from <I>Ixodes persulcatus</I>.<BR>We would expect that the morphological and physiological study of Ixodes species will develop hereafter concurrently with the parasitism of man by <I>Ixodes nipponensis</I> from the epidemiological standpoint.