ABSTRACT
A longitudinal survey (February 1984 - January 1985) on the incidence of acute diarrhea episodes in a sample of 8,164 children (aged 0-12 years) living in southeastern Sicily was carried out by means of weekly telephone interviews with doctors practising in the territory. The incidence rate was 0.479 (0.472-0.485 95% C.I.) per child per year and the frequency of episodes was significantly higher (p less than 0.001) in children aged 0-4 years (0.86). Diarrhea was more frequent in industrial areas than in rural ones, and almost half (45.1%) of the total episodes had a mild course. No death from diarrhea occurred and admission to hospital was reported for 8.4% of all cases.
Subject(s)
Diarrhea, Infantile/epidemiology , Diarrhea/epidemiology , Acute Disease/epidemiology , Child , Child, Preschool , Humans , Incidence , Infant , Infant, Newborn , Longitudinal Studies , Seasons , Sicily/epidemiology , Socioeconomic FactorsABSTRACT
A vaccination trial, performed on 86 3-month-old infants, has shown that the ability of the RIT 4237 live attenuated rotavirus strain to induce seroconversion is dramatically reduced when administered with live poliovirus vaccine. In a subsequent trial performed on 93 infants the attempt to overcome the poliovirus interference by administering two doses of associated vaccines was unsuccessful. No interference by the RIT 4237 strain on live attenuated polioviruses was observed.
Subject(s)
Poliovirus Vaccine, Inactivated/administration & dosage , Rotavirus/immunology , Viral Vaccines/administration & dosage , Administration, Oral , Antibodies, Viral/analysis , Clinical Trials as Topic , Double-Blind Method , Drug Interactions , Female , Humans , Infant , Male , Random Allocation , Viral Vaccines/immunologyABSTRACT
Preliminary results of a trial involving a yeast-derived hepatitis B vaccine administered to 41 transfusion-dependent thalassaemic patients and 2 patients with spherocytosis are reported. Twenty-microgram doses of HBsAg were administered according to either a 0, 1, and 6 month or 0, 1, and 2 month schedule. Serum specimens collected prior to vaccination, one month after each vaccine dose, and again at 5 and 15 months, were tested for HBV markers and ALT. To date, seroconversion (anti-HBs titres greater than 10 IU/l) was observed in 15%, 67%, and 86% of patients one month following the three vaccine doses, respectively. Although the study is still in progress, a comparison of these results with those previously obtained using plasma-derived vaccine indicates that seroconversion to the recombinant yeast-derived vaccine is at least as high as that obtained by plasma-derived vaccines in patients affected by thalassaemia major.
