Update on the virology of AIDS

This article looks at the history, development, progress and research of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) which causes AIDS. The author reports of the ongoing research into a vaccine for HIV, he examines the viral life cycle and indicates the points at which the virus can be attacked, and classifies antiviral strategies

Morbidity in general practice in Barbados

From September 1977, 11 general practitioners took part in a survey of 12 months' duration in which they recorded morbidity at every doctor-patient encounter. 35,143 patients made 53,094 encounters and a total of 62,932 problems were identified. The most common reason for going to the doctor was for examination with no disease detected. Acute upper respiratory tract infections, hypertension and pregnancy were the 3 most common specific problems with which the doctors dealt. The results demonstrated some features of general practice such as the abundance of the common diseases, the need to be alert to the infrequent occurrence of wide range major disease, pre-symptomatic screening of the healthy "at risk" patient and the problems of the ill-defined conditions. Comparisons with other surveys show some similarities in general practice morbidity, but also important differences that can be related to prevailing local conditions (AU)

Observations on complement fixation in diagnosis of leptospirosis in Barbados - abstract

Observations are presented on the complement fixation test in the diagnosis of leptospirosis in Barbados using antigen consisting of Patoc 1, stain 3705 (Wolfii) and strain Utrecht IV (Canicola) supplied by Dr. Leslie Turner, Leptospirosis Reference Laboratory, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Complement fixation tests with this antigen on several hundred sera, showed that diagnostically significant rises in complement fixing (C.F.) antibodies were readily obtainable in many cases of jaundice with or without renal failure in which the diagnosis of Weills type of leptospirosis was entertained on clinical grounds. C.F. antibodies to this antigen were found at titres of 1/20 or 1/40 in some healthy blood donors and in hospital patients, who had no clinical evidence of Leptospiral disease - an occasional serum from this group reacted at 1/80. It is concluded, that a titre of over 1/80 in a single serum from an acutely ill patient points strongly to a clinical diagnosis of leptospirosis and a titre of 1/320 would be virtually diagnostic. Titres of residual antibodies in patients who had leptospirosis with diagnostically significant rise in C.F. antibodies were $140 or less, a few months after recovery. These residual antibodies may be a source of false positive macroscopic slide tests with commercially available antigen pools of killed formalized leptospiras (Galton Type Antigens). The compliment fixation test might well give a diagnostically significant result on the first sample tested, and in a busy general routine clinical laboratory, a combination of this and the macroscopic slide test is more practicable than attempting the microscopic agglutination test. Sera tested in Barbados for C.F. antibodies against the U.K. Leptosprosis Reference Centre, Patoc, Wolfii, Canicola Antigen were also tested at that centre in London and after initial descrepancies results of titres agreed satisfactorily. As a result of extensive tests and experience with sera from Roumania, Malaysia, the West Indies (mainly The Barbados Sera) and Burma, a compound screening antigen which seems able to detect antibodies in human infection with any serotype of pathogenic leptospirosis has been to detect antibodies in human infection with any serotype of pathogenic leptospirosis has been evolved and it is hoped to work with that antigen here in Barbados very shortly (AU)

Leptospirosis in Barbados

A retrospective study was made of a series of hospital cases - admitted suffering from jaundice over a period of three years who showed positive serological evidence of leptospirosis. The serological test done was a complement fixation test using a pool of leptospiral antigens made up to L. Icterohaemorrhagica. Canicola, Hebdomades, Ballum, Grippotyphosa and Cremastos prepared by the Trinidad Regional Virus Laboratory using ultrasonic disintegration. A number of sera showing positive complement fixation tests were also tested by tube agglutination against individuals leptospira causing human infection in Barbados. The test were carried out jointly in the laboratories of the T.R.V.L. and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Barbados. It was possible to show a significant rise of titre in several cases. Clinical features were also studied of patients admitted to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Barbados, with positive serology and compared with other patients suffering from other causes of jaundice, especially infective hepatitis. A prospective study is now being undertaken in Barbados, as part of a Caribbean scheme to study leptospirosis in Jamaica, Trinidad and Barbados(AU)

Some aspects of malignant disease of the upper respiratory tract

Surgical biopsy material submitted by the Department of Otolaryngology, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Barbados, to the Department of Pathology of that hospital from 1st Nov., 1965, to 15th March, 1967 is reviewed. (The beginning of the period chosen coincided with the setting up of a Department of Otolaryngology in that hospital under the direction of a qualified specialist Otolaryngologist). The total number accessions was 130 and of these 22 were malignant neoplasms of the upper respiratory tract. These are classified according to their anatomical location and histological characteristics. During the period under review, the total number of surgical biopsy specimens submitted to the Department of Pathology for examination was 1,500, and the total number of malignant neoplasms that were diagnosed histologically was 300. Malignant neoplasms of the upper respiratory tract thus represented 7.3 per cent of all the malignant tumours submitted for histological examination. The incidence and microscopic features of these neoplasms in Barbados and their histological gradings are compared with the findings of Bras and his co-workers in Jamaica in their paper on the Incidence of malignant neoplasms in that island, of Edington and Maclean's cancer survey in Western Nigeria, Davies' figures for cancer in Uganda and Cabrera's figures for cancer in the Congo. Some of the more interesting of the malignant neoplasms in the series studied are described in greater detail, including a malignant melanoma presenting in the oropharynx, a sarcoma-like tumour in the glottis and a chemodectoma found within the larynx (AU)

Serum Beta Lipo-proteins in Barbados

Using the Immunocrit method, serum lipo-proteins and cholesterol levels were estimated in a series of normal and hypertensive males. While a higher proportion of the subjects in each group showed maximum normal lipo-protein precipitation, a significant number gave values below the standard North American Normal. There was no marked trend among the hypertensives studied to indicate a significant degree of Beta lipo-proteinuria and it is suggested that further studies might well confirm that hypertension in Barbados is not significantly associated with B lipo-proteinuria and by implication with atherosclerosis (AU)