Characteristics of males at a public health department contraceptive service.

To effectively confront teenage pregnancy, the characteristics, attitudes, and behaviors of males, along with females, need to be better understood. This pilot study examined young males who visited the family planning clinic of a public health department to obtain free condoms. Questionnaires were distributed over a 4-week period. Nearly 30% of males reported having sex 11+ times a month. However, an equal proportion reported having sex three or fewer times in the same interval. Most males reported using condoms during sex, although one quarter reported use as "seldom." The health department was a major source of condoms and was positively evaluated because condoms were free and there were "no questions asked." Only one third of the males reported using another method of contraception. Results suggest a major role of the health department in condom availability and the potential need for contraceptive services for males.

PIP: To effectively confront teenage pregnancy, the characteristics, attitudes, and behaviors of males, along with females, need to be better understood. This pilot study examined young US males who visited the family planning clinic of a public health department to obtain free condoms. Questionnaires were distributed over a 4-week period. Nearly 30% of males reported having sex 11+ times a month. However, an equal proportion reported having sex 3 or fewer times in the same interval. Most males reported using condoms during sex, although 1/4 reported use as "seldom." The health department was a major source of condoms and was positively evaluated because condoms were free and there were "no questions asked." Only one 1/3 of the males reported using another method of contraception. Results suggest a major role of the health department in condom availability and the potential need for contraceptive services for males.

Consortium building among local health departments in northwest Illinois.

The 1947 report by Haven Emerson envisioned the widespread delivery of local public health services through organizational patterns that substituted multi-county or regional agencies for locally controlled departments. The 1971 study by Vlado Getting supported the Emerson report and suggested alternative methods to provide public health services via multi-county area health service agencies for rural areas of Illinois. The number of local agencies in the State has doubled since the mid-1960s, yet a majority of rural counties have maintained a single-county health agency rather than forming multi-county arrangements. In effect, potential economies of scale have been forfeited. In northwest Illinois, however, eight local health departments, covering both rural and urban areas, have formed a multi-county consortium to identify and meet several overlapping program needs. This Region I consortium, with a population base of 590,000, was created as a result of the 1981 Omnibus Budget Reduction Act. Through the block grants created by the act, funds became available for preventive health and health promotion activities in fiscal year 1982. Once in place, the consortium provided a cost effective means to manage the Women, Infants, and Children Supplemental Feeding Program (WIC) and some elements of family planning programs in Region I. The consortium approach offers numerous opportunities for future growth and regionalization of services.

1% permethrin cream rinse vs 1% lindane shampoo in treating pediculosis capitis.

The therapeutic efficacy and tolerance of a single application of 1% permethrin cream rinse, applied for ten minutes, and a single application of 1% lindane shampoo applied, as recommended by the manufacturer, for four minutes, against the head louse Pediculus humanus var capitis were compared in a single-blinded, randomized, controlled clinical trial. Of 573 patients enrolled at eight centers, 559 were assessable for tolerance and 508 for efficacy. Of the 257 patients treated with 1% permethrin cream rinse, 99% were lice free at 14 days; of the 251 patients treated with 1% lindane shampoo, 85% were lice free at 14 days. The difference is statistically significant. For both treatments, adverse experiences were infrequent, mild, and usually difficult to distinguish from the symptoms of head lice infestation. A single ten-minute application of 1% permethrin cream rinse was well tolerated, highly effective, and therapeutically superior to a single four-minute application of 1% lindane shampoo.

Morphometric and morphologic evaluation of pulmonary lesions in beagle dogs chronically exposed to high ambient levels of air pollutants.

Beagle dogs (104) comprising one control and seven treatment groups were exposed 16 hours daily for 68 months to filtered air, raw or photochemically reacted auto exhaust, oxides of sulfur or nitrogen, or their combinations. After a further 32 to 36 months in clean air, morphologic examination of lungs by light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy revealed two important exposure-related lesions. They were enlargement of air spaces in proximal acinar regions, with and without increases in the number and size of interalveolar pores, and hyperplasia of nonciliated bronchiolar cells. Proximal enlargment of air spaces was most severe, both subjectively and morphometrically, in those dogs exposed to oxides of nitrogen, oxides of sulfur, or oxides of sulfur with photochemically reacted auto exhause. In contrast, hyperplasia of nonciliated bronchiolar cells was most severe in dogs exposed to raw auto exhaust alone or with oxides of sulfur. The air space enlargement and hyperplasia of bronchiolar epithelium correlated with functional impairment reported as occurring in these dogs. Foci of ciliary loss with and without squamous metaplasia were occasionally observed in trachea and bronchi. The observations indicate that enlargement of proximal acinar air spaces with some loss of interalveolar septa can develop in the absence of alveolar fenestrations. The persistnt nature of bronchiolar cell proliferations in such circumstances was also demonstrated. Two major toxicologic implications are (1) the production of permanent lung damage by much lower concentrations of pollutants than previously reported and (2) the apparent lack of additive or synergistic effects between oxidant gases and sulfur oxides.