[The status of and outlook for improving the diagnosis of acute intestinal infections at the prehospital stage]. / Sostoianie i perspektivy sovershenstvovaniia diagnostiki ostrykh kishechnykh infektsii na dogospital'nom étape.

Comprehensive analysis of the incidence of acute enteric infections (AEI) in Moscow over the period of 1985-1990 was made. The analysis demonstrated serious drawbacks in the diagnosis of a number of AEI, including alimentary toxicoinfections, salmonellosis, dysentery, typhoid-paratyphoid diseases, Yersinia and Escherichia infections, and in rendering timely medical care of the patients at the prehospitalization stage. The analysis also revealed that in all AEI the outpatient and inpatient diagnosis still did not coincide in too many cases, and the diagnostic errors in recognition of surgical diseases in infectious patients were too frequent. This analysis also showed an increase in the number of cases of untimely hospitalization of AEI patients, which was the cause of severe and prolonged course of diseases and lethal outcomes. To improve the work at the prehospitalization stage, the following recommendations were made: to improve professional skills of medical personnel at all levels; to introduce differentiated hospitalization of AEI patients, with due consideration of the severity of the case and concomitant diseases and the patient's age; to organize hospital-type treatment at home, as well as to promote insurance medicine.

[Virological and serological examination of the patients in a period of influenza A1 outbreak in Aktyubinsk]. / Virusologicheskoe i serologicheskoe obsledovanie bol'nykh v period vspyshki grippa A1 v Aktiubinske.

In October--December, 1977, an epidemic outbreak of influenza predominantly among young people of an organized community was recorded in Aktyubinsk. For decifering the outbreak virological and serological examinations of 325 subjects in foci of the disease as well as hospitalized patients were carried out. The etiology of influenza was confirmed clinically, epidemiologically, and by laboratory examinations in 150 patients. In chick embryos, 53 strains of influenza A1 virus were isolated. Investigations of the strains causing the influenza outbreak in autumn 1977 confirmed that they were influenza A (HINI) viruses. Antihemagglutinating antibodies to the new influenza A1 virus isolate were demonstrated in patients and normal subjects. A detailed analysis of antibody levels to 5 serotypes of influenza virus revealed a rise in antibody titers to the homologous serotypes A2 and to the new A1 isolate. In the acute stage of the disease and in convalescence the geometric mean antibody titer to the new A1 isolate was comparatively lower than to other serotypes.