Religiosity, race/ethnicity, and alcohol use behaviors in the United States.

BACKGROUND: Religiosity is a protective factor against many health problems, including alcohol use disorders (AUD). Studies suggest that religiosity has greater buffering effects on mental health problems among US Blacks and Hispanics than Whites. However, whether race/ethnic differences exist in the associations of religiosity, alcohol consumption and AUD is unclear. METHOD: Using 2004-2005 NESARC data (analytic n = 21 965), we examined the relationship of public religiosity (i.e. frequency of service attendance, religious social group size), and intrinsic religiosity (i.e. importance of religious/spiritual beliefs) to frequency of alcohol use and DSM-IV AUD in non-Hispanic (NH) Blacks, Hispanics and NH Whites, and whether associations differed by self-identified race/ethnicity. RESULTS: Only public religiosity was related to AUD. Frequency of religious service attendance was inversely associated with AUD (NH Whites ß: -0.103, p 0.05) or Hispanics (ß: -0.002, p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: US adults reporting greater public religiosity were at lower risk for AUD. Public religiosity may be particularly important among NH Blacks, while intrinsic religiosity may be particularly important among NH Whites, and among Hispanics who frequently attend religious services. Findings may be explained by variation in drinking-related norms observed among these groups generally, and in the context of specific religious institutions.

Hepatitis C virus-specific T-cell immune responses in seronegative injection drug users.

T-cell responses to hepatitis C virus (HCV) antigens have been reported in high-risk HCV seronegative persons, suggesting that an effective cellular immune response might be able to clear infection without the development of antibodies. Such findings, however, could be explained by waning antibody or cross-reactivity to other antigens. To address these issues, we evaluated HCV-specific T-cell responses in 26 young (age 18-33 years) aviremic, seronegative injection drug users (IDUs) (median duration of injection, 6 years) by interferon-gamma enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISpot) assay using 429 overlapping HCV peptides pooled in 21 mixes. Seventeen aviremic, seropositive IDUs (spontaneous resolvers) and 15 healthy people were used as positive and negative controls, respectively. The percentage of patients with HCV-specific cellular immune responses was similar in seronegative and seropositive aviremic IDUs (46%vs 59%, P = 0.4), while these responses were not detected in any of the negative controls. Among the seronegative IDUs, six (23%) had intermediate to very strong responses to 10-20 peptide mixes and another six (23%) had moderately strong responses for two to six mixes. The 12 seronegative IDUs with HCV-specific T-cell responses had higher demographical and behavioural risk profiles than the 14 IDUs without T-cell responses (estimated risk of HCV infection, 0.47 vs 0.26, P < 0.01). In conclusion, HCV-specific T-cell responses are common among high-risk, seronegative IDUs. The responses are broad and are associated with risk factors for HCV exposure, suggesting that they reflect true exposure to HCV in seronegative persons.

Acute bacterial conjunctivitis. Bacteriology and clinical implications.

We report the results of eye culture specimens, obtained from patients under 20 years of age, submitted to the Bacteriology Department of our institution from January 1 through April 30, 1983. A total of 72 specimens were positive for one or more strains of bacteria. The most commonly isolated bacteria was Hemophilus influenzae (34 strains, 42%), followed by Staphylococcus epidermidis (11 strains, 13.75%) and Streptococcus pneumoniae (9 strains, 11.25%). Mean age of patients with H. influenzae (excluding a 20-year-old patient) was 15 months with standard deviation of 13 months. Chloramphenicol and tetracycline showed excellent in vitro activity against bacteria of all age groups. Tetracycline may prove to be the drug of choice for the treatment of acute conjunctivitis if comparative clinical data support its in vitro superiority.