[Outbreak of enteroviral infection in Vitebsk during pollution of water supply by enteroviruses]. / Vspyshka énterovirusnoi infektsii v Vitebske v usloviiakh zagriazneniia pitevoi fody énterovirusami.

The conducted virologic, serological and molecular-and-biological investigations showed that virus Coxsakie B4, isolated from cerebrospinal fluid and rhinopharyngeal lavages of patients, was the main etiological agent, which caused mainly an outbreak of enterovirus infection in the city of Vitebsk in 2001. Coxsakie B4 viruses were found in 30% of samples by using the cultural method and in 76.9% of samples--by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) while carrying out the sanitary-and-virologic investigations in drinking water, including in infection foci. Besides, we found infectious non-cytolitic enteroviruses (EV) with changed biological properties (which could not be detected by the classic cultural method) in drinking water by using the method of PCR integrated with cell culture in the "-" strand of EV RNA. Peculiar clinical-and-epidemiological characteristics of the disease outbreak, i.e. "explosive" onset, multiple clinical forms, mixed EV infections and disease decay after drinking-water chlorination, as well as the isolation of one and the same EV serotype from patients and from water testify to a possible water origin of the outbreak.

[The action of reserpine in experimental rabies infection]. / Izuchenie deistviia rezerpina pri éksperimental'noi rabicheskoi infektsii.

Experimental studies in laboratory animals showed reserpine in doses of 0.01-0.05 mg/kg body weight to inhibit the development of rabies infection in white mice and rabbits by 40.0-83.4% depending on the dose and mode of administration. The inhibiting properties of reserpine were demonstrated for both fixed and street rabies virus strains. The protective effect of the drug was manifested after parenteral and oral administration to the infected animals. The experimental data suggest that reserpine may be used as an antiviral drug for protective treatment of rabies in the incubation period.

[Search for inhibitors of West Nile virus among antibiotics]. / Poisk ingibitorov virusa Zapadnogo Nila sredi antibiotikov.

The activity of 24 antibiotics was studied in treatment of albino mice with experimental encephalitis caused by West Nile virus. The antiviral activity of gentamicin and kanamycin was stated. The survival rate of the animals 19. contaminated with 10-100 LD50 of the West Nile virus and treated parenterally with gentamicin in a dose of 80 to 400 micrograms/mouse was higher than that in the controls by 29.5 to 100 per cent and depended on the drug regimen. The efficacy of kanamycin was lower. The chemotherapeutic indices of gentamicin and kanamycin amounted to 100 and 10, respectively. Since there are no schemes for chemotherapy of the infection caused by the West Nile virus and the respective vaccines are not available the use of the antibiotics and gentamicin in particular appears to be promising in the disease prevention and treatment.