ABSTRACT
A prospective study of acute diarrhoea was performed during 15 months 1981/1982 and included 731 patients and 240 controls. 43% had been infected abroad. A cluster of travellers with bacterial pathogens was diagnosed in July-August. The following pathogens were found: Campylobacter (18%), enterotoxigenic E. coli (6%), Salmonella spp. (5%), rotavirus (4%), Yersinia enterocolitica (3%), Giardia lamblia (3%), Shigella spp. (2%), Clostridium difficile (2%), enteroviruses (2%) and Entamoeba histolytica (less than 1%). More than 90% of the bacterial or parasitic enteropathogens were detected in the first stool sample. Only 10% of the patients needed hospital treatment and for 97% oral fluids were sufficient. The median duration of diarrhoea was 9 days. No fatal cases occurred and only 2 cases of chronic bowel disease were detected.
Subject(s)
Diarrhea/microbiology , Acute Disease , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Anti-Bacterial Agents/therapeutic use , Campylobacter/isolation & purification , Diarrhea/complications , Diarrhea/therapy , Feces/microbiology , Female , Fever/etiology , Fluid Therapy , Hospitalization , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Prospective Studies , Seasons , Sweden , Time Factors , Travel , Urban Health , Vomiting/etiologyABSTRACT
Two groups of patients with non-traumatic focal intracranial suppurative diseases were studied retrospectively to illustrate epidemiology, clinical symptoms and therapeutic results. The first group consists of 87 patients treated for brain abscess in the Department of Neurosurgery in Lund. During the 36-year period investigated (1947-1982) marked epidemiological changes occurred. Thus otogenic abscesses, constituting 33% of the cases below the age of 30 during the first 12 years of the study, virtually disappeared. During the third 12-year period of this study a marked increase in the number of abscesses was noted. The increase was caused particularly by the number of cryptogenic abscesses amounting to 51% of the material during 1971-1982. The second group of patients consists of all patients with pre- or post-mortem diagnosed brain abscess in the city of Malmö during 1960-1981. Since during this period 85% of all persons who died in this city were subjected to post-mortem examination this material offers a unique possibility of epidemiological studies. The combined study of these two groups of patients lends no support to the view that a real increase in the number of brain abscesses has occurred. We conclude that in patients with cryptogenic brain abscess the clinical symptoms do not usually indicate the presence of an infectious disease. In the majority of these patients a correct diagnosis has presumably not been obtained until the last decade. Furthermore, the investigation confirms the view that a mortality below 10% is nowadays feasible in unselected cases of brain abscess.
Subject(s)
Brain Abscess/epidemiology , Brain Abscess/etiology , Brain Abscess/microbiology , Brain Abscess/therapy , Humans , SwedenABSTRACT
The etiological role of Legionella pneumophila and other infectious agents in acute lower respiratory tract infections in 112 patients attending an infectious disease clinic was estimated by a serological study of paired sera and bacteriological culture of nasopharynx swabs and culture and immunoelectroosmophoresis of expectorates. Only 2 of the patients had a 4-fold rise in antibody titre to L. pneumophila, suggesting a similar incidence of legionnaires' disease as reported from USA.
