[Use of highly purified subvirion trivalent flue vaccine ("Grippovak") in groups with a high risk of complications]. / Primenenie glubokoochishchennoi subvirionnoi trekhvalentnoi grippoznoi vaktsiny ("Grippovak") v gruppakh vysokogo riska oslozhnenii.

During the epidemic season of 1989-1990 the subunit vaccine Grippovac was used in 20 asylums for old people and psychoneurological invalids in Moscow for the protection of the inhabitants and the personnel from influenza. Follow-up of the vaccinees during the period from November 1989 to March 1990 revealed that the use of this vaccine decreased the incidence of influenza-like diseases (ILD) 3.4-4.1 times among the vaccinees in comparison with that in the nonvaccinated control groups and significantly decreased the severity of the course of ILD, as well as the mortality because of ILD, among those vaccinees who had contacted ILD. This is indicative of good prospects of regular vaccinal prophylaxis of influenza at asylums for old people and other persons at a high risk of influenza complications.

[Antigenic characteristics of influenza B virus strains isolated in an orphanage during an influenza outbreak in Moscow in the winter of 1988]. / Antigennaia kharakteristika shtammov virusa gripa B, izolirovannykh v detskom dome-internate pri vspyshke grippa v Moskve zimoi 1998 g.

Examinations of ARD patients in an orphanage for defective children in Moscow during an influenza outbreak in the winter of 1988 yielded 12 influenza virus strains, including 6 influenza B strains and 6 influenza A (H3N2) strains. The antigenic analysis of hemagglutinin of influenza B virus isolates showed that with respect to the B/Leningrad/179/86 strain (an antigenic analogue of B/Ann Arbor/1/86 strain recommended for inclusion into the influenza vaccine for 1987-1988) they could be divided into 2 groups: antigenically close to the B/Leningrad/86 strain (isolate B/712) and markedly differing from it (the remaining isolates). As compared with reference strains of the previous years, all the new virus isolates fell into 4 groups: isolate B/712 antigenically related to B/Hong Kong/73 and B/Leningrad/86 strains; B/722 antigenically close to B/Singapore/222/79 and B/USSR/100/83 strains; B/724, an antigenic analogue to B/USSR/100/83; and the remaining isolates, to some or other extent, differing from various reference strains. This attests to simultaneous circulation of various antigenic variants of influenza B virus during the 1988 winter outbreak of influenza in Moscow. An interesting feature of the B/712/88 isolate consists in its antigenic specificity of hemagglutinin being indistinguishable from that of B/Hong Kong/8/73 strains.

[Dhori virus--a causative agent of human disease. 5 cases of laboratory infection]. / Virus Dkhori--vozbuditel' zabolevaniia cheloveka. Piat' sluchaev laboratornoi infektsii.

The materials presented in the paper are first indications of the pathogenicity of Dhori virus for man and prove the role of this agent in the occurrence of 5 cases of the disease in laboratory workers accidentally infected during the preparation of cultural agents. Clinically, Dhori infection was characterized by an acute course with marked general toxicity and a febrile period of 2 to 4 days. Two out of 5 patients had changes on the part of the nervous system of the type of encephalitic reaction predominantly with subcortical symptoms and mild involvement of the pyramidal system or in the form of encephalopolyradiculoneuritis with paresthesia and sensitivity disorders.

[Immunogenicity and the protective effectiveness of the subunit trivalent influenza vaccine Grippovac]. / Immunogennost' i protektivnaia éffektivnost' sub"edinichnoi grippoznoi trekhvalentnoi vaktsiny "Grippovak".

In the process of the immunological approbation of several experimental batches of the triyalent subunit influenza vaccine Grippovac, the pronounced immunogenicity of the antigens of all strains contained in the vaccine was established; most of the vaccinees were found to retain sufficiently high antibody titers for a year, and the essential total increase of antibody titers was found to occur after a single booster immunization. The serological checking of the diagnosed cases of influenza among immunized and nonimmunized children, carried out in two boarding schools during the influenza epidemic in the winter of 1984-1985 provided the proofs of the high effectiveness of Grippovac in preventing viral influenza, types A and B: the decrease of influenza morbidity among the immunized children reached 79,5-67,2-66,5% and the total morbidity rate in influenza in these two boarding scholls dropped, on the average, 3,0-3,5 times.

[Isolation of the influenza B virus in MDCK cells]. / Vydelenie virusa grippa B v kletkakh MDCK.

The frequency of influenza B virus isolation from clinical specimens is much higher when a continuous line of dog kidney cells, MDCK, is employed, and not the developing chick embryos. Among 9 influenza B virus strains isolated during the influenza epidemic of 1983-1984 winter, 8 strains were isolated in MDCK cells and only 1 in chick embryos. The influenza B virus isolates were similar to influenza B/Singapore/222/79 virus differing from it in HI titres 2-16-fold.