[Outbreak of giardiasis at a preschool children establishment in the town of Perm']. / Vspyshka liamblioza v detskom doshkol'nom uchrezhdenii g. Permi.

In November 2000, an outbreak of Giardiasis intestinalis with aqueous transmission was recorded in one of the microdistricts of Perm. Thirty six children aged 1-7 years fell ill, 2 parasitic carriers were identified among the staff. The diagnosis was parasitologically verified in all children with clinical manifestations. Enzyme immunoassay was positive in 87.5% of the patients with the parasitologically verified diagnosis. The aqueous nature of the outbreak was confirmed by the detection of Lamblia cysts in the samples of water from the transfer network of the microdistrict in November 2000 and by the higher incidence of giardiasis among the microdistrict's residents since April 2000. Macmiror in age-specific doses was used to treat patients. The therapeutical efficiency of one course was 100%. If outbreaks of intestinal infections of unknown etiology occur, a parasitological survey should be made among patients and those who have contacted with them. Prolonged diarrhea was one of the major symptoms of giardiasis during an outbreak of this intestinal infection.

[Antibacterial therapy as a means of preventing ixodid tick-borne borreliosis]. / Antibakterial'naia terapiia kak sposob profilaktiki iksodovykh kleshchevykh borreliozov.

A special epidemiological experiment to prevent borreliosis in persons bitten by infected ticks was performed in 1992-1994 in the Russia's Perm region where Borrelia garinii and B.afzelii circulate, and Ixodes persulcatus tick is the sole vector transmitting these pathogens to human beings. Adult ticks were removed from the bodies of persons who had referred to health facilities for first aid. Vital preparations were made from the material obtained from the gut of each tick and examined microscopically (up to 250 microscopic fields per preparation). The patients bitten by infected ticks were divided into experimental and control groups and kept under special medical and serological control for 4-5 months. The patients of the experimental group received doxycycline (100 mg twice daily) for 3-5 days after ticks had bitten. Borreliosis was diagnosed by a combination of clinical and serological data. The control group consisted of 97 patients who took no antibiotics after ticks biting and 12 of them contracted borreliosis. In 823 cases Borrelia were not revealed while microscopically analyzing the ticks removed from the patients' bodies; in this group six patients contracted borreliosis. The morbidity rate (per 100 patients) in the experimental group was 1.1, i.e. 11 times lower than that in control group. Among the patients bitten by infected ticks and untreated with antibiotics, this index was 17.6 times higher than in the group bitten by ticks in which Borrelia were not found. There is no absolute probability of detecting the pathogen during a direct microscopic analysis of the preparation made from the tick removed from the body of a bitten patient. However, this rapid identification of Borrelia, followed by short-term antibiotic treatment for microbiological evidence is an effective tool for preventing patients from contracting borrelioses.

[The presence of Borrelia in the intestines and salivary glands of spontaneously infected adult Ixodes persulcatus Schulze ticks during bloodsucking]. / Prisutstvie borrelii v kishechnike i sliunnykh zhelezakh spontanno zarazhennykh vzroslykh kleshchei Ixodes persulcatus Schulze pri krovososanii.

A direct microscopic analysis of fixed smears and live preparations was used to reveal whether spirochetes are present in the gut and salivary glands of adult Ixodes persulcatus ticks spontaneously infected with Borrelia garinii and B. afzelii. Unfed ticks collected from a vegetation, partially fed ticks removed from human bodies, and ticks deliberately fed on laboratory animals were studied. In each preparation, all spirochetes were counted in 250 microscopic fields, and their concentration per 100 microscopic fields was determined. A total of 1962 ticks were individually analysed. The methods used on the study allowed a reliable identification of Borrelia in the viscera of not only unfed, but also of partially fed ticks. The infection rate in ticks that started bloodsucking was slightly lower than in the unfed ticks. This was associated with the decreased spirochete concentration in the preparations made from the partially fed ticks. Borrelia were frequently found in the salivary glands of the unfed infected I. persulcatus. During the first two to three days of bloodsucking, neither the proportion of ticks with spirochetes in the salivary glands, nor the spirochete concentrations increase. Borrelia migration from the tick gut into the salivary glands during early bloodsucking is not a prerequisite for or even important for pathogen transmission with saliva. The transmission rate appears to depend on the baseline proportion of the unfed ticks carrying spirochetes in their salivary glands.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)