Prevention of Lifestyle-related Diseases by Utilization of Newly Developed Health Record Booklet "My Karte" in Mitoyo and Kanonji Areas.

In the Mitoyo and Kanonji areas, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan, we have newly developed a simple health record booklet for parents with children called "My Karte", which is an enlarged edition of the maternal and child health handbook. Our municipality borough gives this booklet together with the maternal and child handbook to all pregnant women without exception. In this booklet, care personnel or child by themselves write down the health condition and body development of the child, including medical examination records and vaccinations. From an overview of this simple record, healthcare practitioners, caretakers or school nurses can immediately grasp the child's body condition, for example, whether the child is overweight or underweight, and various health problems early and precisely. In addition, the child and care personnel can evaluate the health condition of the child through self-assessment. We hope that the self-assessment will promote health during the child's life. Moreover we are planning to collect and analyze the data from the distributed My Karte. The analyzed results will be released to the public, which will promote health consciousness in this area and give healthcare professionals basic and important data useful for daily medical practice.

Surface plasmon optical antennae in the infrared region with high resonant efficiency and frequency selectivity.

Infrared light has received attention for sensor applications, including fingerprint spectroscopy, in the bioengineering and security fields. Surface plasmon physics enables the operation of a light harvesting optical antenna. Gold nanochains exhibit localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) in the infrared region with high frequency selectivity. However, a feasible design for optical antennae with a higher resonant efficiency and frequency selectivity as a function of structural design and periodicity is still unknown. In the present study, we investigated the relationship between the resonant efficiency and frequency selectivity as a function of the structural design of gold nanochains and explored structural periodicity for obtaining highly frequency-selective optical antennae. An optical antenna design with higher resonant efficiency is proposed on the basis of its efficient interaction with non-polarized light.

Immunomodulator clarithromycin enhances mucosal and systemic immune responses and reduces re-infection rate in pediatric patients with influenza treated with antiviral neuraminidase inhibitors: a retrospective analysis.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Treatment with antiviral neuraminidase inhibitors suppresses influenza viral replication and antigen production, resulting in marked attenuation of mucosal immunity and mild suppression of systemic immunity in mice. This study investigated the effects of immunomodulator clarithromycin (CAM) supplementation on mucosal and systemic immunity in pediatric patients with influenza treated with neuraminidase inhibitors. METHODS: A retrospective, non-randomized case series study was conducted among five treatment groups of 195 children aged 5.9±3.3 years infected with influenza A in 2008/2009 season. The five treatment groups were oseltamivir (OSV), zanamivir (ZNV), OSV+CAM, ZNV+CAM and untreated groups. Anti-viral secretory IgA (S-IgA) levels in nasal washes and IgG levels in sera were measured. The re-infection rate was analyzed among the same five treatment groups in the 2009/2010 season. RESULTS: Treatment of influenza with OSV and ZNV for 5 days attenuated the induction of anti-viral S-IgA in nasal washes and anti-viral IgG in serum, compared with the untreated group. The combination of CAM plus OSV or ZNV boosted and restored the production of mucosal S-IgA and systemic IgG. The re-infection rates in the subsequent season were significantly higher in the OSV and ZNV groups than the untreated, while CAM+OSV and CAM+ZNV tended to reduce such rate. CONCLUSIONS: CAM restored the attenuated anti-viral mucosal and systemic immunity and reduced the re-infection rate in the subsequent year in pediatric patients with influenza treated with OSV and ZNV.

[Varricela vaccination policy subsidy evaluation].

OBJECTIVES: Mitoyo and Kanonji cities in Kagawa prefecture began a varicella vaccination subsidy in April 1, 2007. To evaluate this policy, we studied morbidity and vaccination coverage before and after subsidy went into effect, vaccination efficacy for severity and family nursing burden, and cooperation with the Mitoyo Kanonj medical association and Mitoyo and Kanonji municipalities. METHODS: Mitoyo and Kanonji implemented a varicella vaccination subsidy for residents under 5-years-old born after April 1, 2002, and having previous varicella infection. We surveyed health checkups for children, for doctor or family members with varicella, and subsidy bills from May 1, 2007, to March 31, 2008. RESULT: The response rate of family member report was about 60% of doctor, varicella broke out in Decemeber 2007. Health surveys showed that varicella vaccination efficacy was 74% at up to three-years-old, but declined to 63% among those older. Morbidity averaged 5 days duration regardless of vaccination. Subsidy vaccination coverage at 1-year-old rose from 8.0% to 17.2% in Mitoyo and from 13.0% to 28.9% in Kanonji, averaging 17.2% in Mitoyo and 28.9% in Kanonji for these under 5-years-old. DISCUSSION: Vaccination coverage rose, but remained below the national average. We estimate that 6,867,000 yen in total cost and 455,000 yen in direct medical cost on average are saved by the subsidy.