[The results of a 5-year study of listeriosis in Ukraine]. / Itogi piatiletnego izucheniia listerioza na Ukraine.

Data on the isolation of Listeria spp. cultures on the territory of Ukraine, the frequency of Listeria contamination of alimentary raw materials and foodstuffs, the level of listeriosis morbidity, the clinical forms of the manifestation of this disease, as well as the occurrence of asymptomatic carriership among clinically healthy persons of epidemiologically significant professions, are given. The results of the study of the biological properties of 73 strains of Listeria spp., their sensitivity to antibiotics and Chlorophyllipt are presented.

[The etiological structure of acute bacterial meningitis in different regions]. / Etiologicheskaia struktura ostrykh bakterial'nykh meningitov v razlichnykh regionakh.

In 1985-1989 the etiological structure of acute bacterial meningitides (ABM) in children was studied in 4 largest industrial cities in different regions of the European part of the former USSR, as well as in 2 industrial cities of western Siberia. Due to the common methodological approach used in all investigations, comparable data were obtained in all cities. These investigations revealed that meningococci caused 53.0-86.7% of all cases of ABM in children, which corresponded to moderately increased morbidity rate in meningococcal infection (3.9-11.0 cases per 100,000 of the population, mostly 5.0-7.0 cases) in these cities with its progressive decrease during 3-4 years of observation. The gradual change of meningococci from group A, prevailing in the '70s and early '80s, to group B and in some cases the appearance of group C meningococci, accompanied by a decrease in morbidity rate, were noted. In St. Petersburg the indices of ABM morbidity in children aged up to 5 years for 1987 and 1988, caused by Haemophilus influenzae (0.74 and 4.13) and pneumococci (3.23 and 4.86), could be calculated. A great number of ABM cases of unclear etiology (15.9-33.3%) suggests that the number of ABM cases caused by these two infective agents was underestimated.

[The rapid differential diagnosis of bacterial and viral meningitis by using the lysozyme test]. / Differentsial'naia ékspress-diagnotika bakterial'nykh i virusnykh meningitov s pomoshch'iu lizotsimnogo testa.

The authors have modified the technique of the lysozyme test by adding polimixin M sulfate into the gel bacterial medium. Rapid diagnosis with the use of this test is based on different time of the appearance of the lysis areas: in bacterial meningitides the CSF lysozyme activity is detectable within 15-120 min, whereas in viral meningitides it manifests 40-50 min later or does not manifest at all. The results were found to depend on the time of the CSF collection: the earlier the CSF samples were obtained, the higher was the share of positive results.

[Antibody response to capsular polysaccharide antigen in an infection caused by meningococcus serogroup B in children]. / Antitel'nyi otvet na kapsul'nyi polisakharidnyi antigen pri infektsii, vyzvannoi meningokokkami serogruppy B, u detei.

The continuous synchronous cultivation of serogroup B meningococci and the use of the selected clones of producer strains has made it possible to obtain the serologically active preparation of the group-specific antigen from the culture in the exponential phase. The erythrocyte diagnosticum produced on the basis of this preparation has permitted the detection of group-specific antibodies in the sera of immunized rabbits and children with generalized infection caused by serogroup B meningococci. The intensity of immune response depends on the age of children. This new technique of the passive hemagglutination test is recommended for the confirmation of generalized infection caused by serogroup B meningococci.