[Panophthalmitis as a nosocomial infection]. / Panophtalmitida jako nosokomiální nákaza.

The submitted paper deals with an epidemic of severe postoperative panophthalmitis, its development, course, causes and sequelae incl. epidemiological characteristics. The disease developed in four patients 40 hours after operation of cataract. Despite treatment all four patients developed septicaemia and therefore the affected eyeballs were eviscerated. From smears of the conjunctival sac of the affected patients and from the contents of the eviscerated eyeball Proteus mirabilis and Enterobacter cloaceae were cultivated. The authors draw attention to the epidemiological association with the eye lotion BSS which was used from which Proteus mirabilis and E. coli were cultivated and with the Ringer solution from which Enterobacter cloaceae and Klebsiella pneumoniae were cultivated. An epidemiological analysis of the epidemic was made and provisions were defined to rule out its recurrence.

Presence of polioviruses and other enteral viruses in sewage: a survey in the Czech Socialistic Republic 1969-1976.

Monitoring polioviruses in sewage is a permanent task within the poliomyelitis vaccination control programme in Czechoslovakia. The results of sewage examination in certain localities of the CSR in the years 1969 to 1976 are reported. During the study years, nearly 3600 samples of sewage were examined. The yield was about 9 percent of samples positive for polioviruses and 22 per cent of samples positive for other viruses. The virus positivity rate was roughly the same in samples from municipal sewers and samples from children's facilities. The majority of polioviruses were detected within 3 to 4 months after mass vaccination campaigns, which in Czechoslovakia are carried out in spring. In some years types 2 and 3 polioviruses tended to occur in later months after vaccination as well. Antigenic characterization of the polioviruses isolated in Prague showed that polioviruses possessing an rct+ marker and antigenically related but not identical with the original vaccine strains were sometimes present late during the intervals between vaccination campaigns. It may be assumed that vaccine strains which have been in circulation for sufficiently long time are subject to a gradual change or that vaccine-like strains have been imported.

Hong Kong influenza in Czechoslovakia, 1969: a preliminary surveillance report.

Cases of Hong Kong influenza did not appear in Czechoslovakia until the middle of January 1969, although cases had occurred in neighbouring Poland in December 1968.Altogether 426 strains of A2 influenza virus were identified between the 5th and 22nd weeks of 1969 and their biological and antigenic properties were investigated. The strains isolated were highly sensitive to non-specific inhibitors present in horse, guinea-pig and human sera: in human sera, the inhibitors could be removed by means of receptor-destroying enzyme but not by treatment with KIO(4). The haemagglutinin of the new variant was much less sensitive to a temperature of 56 degrees C-65 degrees C than the former A2 strains. The results of all these investigations, which also included complement-fixation and haemagglutination-inhibition tests, showed that the epidemic was caused by A2 influenza strains antigenically and biologically identical with the A2/Hong Kong/68 strain.Surveillance studies showed that the outbreak started in the north-western part of Bohemia and Moravia and spread to the south-east. The rural areas were much less affected than the industrial and densely populated areas. The number of deaths due to influenza and pneumonia was only slightly higher than the seasonal average, probably because of the mild clinical course of the disease.