The origin of acute respiratory epidemics.

After studying the dependence of acute respiratory diseases of all etiologies on air temperature and population immunity dynamics, the authors proposed that the air temperature and the immunity level can affect disease resistance. Knowledge of the relationship between these factors must clarify the mechanisms that determine morbidity dynamics.

[Detection of coronavirus in experimental pneumocystic pneumonia].

Transmission electron microscopy (of ultrathin sections) was used to examine the biomass of lung tissue in the immunodeficiency minipigs experimentally infected with Pneumocystis carinii. The material was found to contain pneumocysts, bacteria, and coronaviruses. There was a clear coronavirus-pneumocyst structural relationship. The findings suggest the combined effect of microorganisms of different systematic groups on the development of a pathological process in the experimental infection etiologically determined by Pneumocystis carinii.

[Preventive measure of massive spreading of influenza and acute respiratory viral infections].

Influenza and acute respiratory viral infections (ARVI) continue to be one of the most actual medical and social-economic problem. But problem of high incidence of ARVI often regarded as problem of influenza only. Information about methods of prognosis of massive spreading of ARVI complex and universal system of their prophylaxis including influenza is presented in the article.

[Evolution of epidemiology]. / Evolutsiia épidemiologii.

The emergence, formation and stages of the development of today epidemiology of infectious diseases are analyzed. Differences in views concerning the essence of epidemiology as science between Russian and foreign schools are indicated. The brief description of the main stages in rendering basic concepts of Russian epidemiology more extensive and profound, including the gradual alteration of the view on epidemiology as the science dealing only with the epidemic process, is presented. In this connection new data on the epidemiological specificity of zoonotic, and especially sapronotic infections, leading to an essenmtal correction of the main postulates of epidemiology, are analyzed. Broader notions of the reservoirs of the causative agents of infections are given, the discrete character of the epidemic (epizootic) process, the role of the latent forms of bacteria in their preservation both in the environment and in the human body in the course of the infectious process are postulated. The complexity of the term "emerging infections" is discussed and 3 variants of its interpretation are proposed. The increasing role of anthropogenic factors, including technogenic effects, is emphasized; in future these factors may be capable of accelerating the man-made evolution of epidemiology.

[Classification of human diseases and prophylaxis of morbidity among the population]. / Klassifikatsiia boleznei cheloveka i profilaktika zabolevaemosti naseleniia.

The existing approaches to the classification of diseases, based on the determination of their nosological forms, are mainly oriented on the clinical requirements. Within the only approach to the classification of diseases, it is difficult to combine the requirements of diagnostics and those of the epidemiological generalization of the data on morbidity for the development of the prophylactic system for the prevention of the mass spread of diseases, which is of particular importance for infectious diseases. It is necessary to form the specialized classification of epidemiological situations, based on the International Classification of Diseases and capable of ensuring the assessment of the epidemic spread of infectious diseases and the development of adequate measures for decreasing mass morbidity among the population.

[The real place of infectious pathology in overall population morbidity]. / Real'noe mesto infektsionnoi patologii v obshchei zabolevaemosti naseleniia.

The statistical decrease of the proportion of infections in the structure of morbidity of the population reflects the existing classification of diseases when only acute diseases are classified with the group "infectious and parasitic diseases". The proportion of diseases caused by infective agents remains constantly high. According to WHO data, such diseases make up one-third of all diseases in the world. In Moscow the proportion of infectious diseases in all diseases registered among the inhabitants of this big city fluctuated within 36.1% and 49.7% during the period of 1926-1997.

[The modern analysis and prediction of the spread of acute respiratory viral infections]. / Sovremennyi analiz i prognozirovanie rasprostraneniia ostrykh respiratornykh virusnykh infektsii.

The weekly dynamics of registered morbidity in the whole complex of acute respiratory viral infections (ARVI) for 1960-1994 was studied. The duration of the annual epidemic cycle of ARVI was taken to be the period from week 26 of the given year to week 25 of the following year. The dynamics of the development of the epidemic process made it possible to distinguish 7 definite stages of the epidemic cycle. The assessment of the state of morbidity at the final stages of the completed epidemic cycle and at the first stages of the following epidemic cycle permits the prediction of the level of ARVI morbidity for the whole following epidemic cycle and the determination of the adequate set of prophylactic measures.

[The use of the results of a statistical analysis for the goal-directed correction of epidemic-control measures with respect to measles]. / Ispol'zovanie rezul'tatov statisticheskogo analiza dlia tselenapravlennoi korrektsii protivoépidemicheskikh meropriiatii v otnoshenii kori.

Measles morbidity and the state of the immune stratum among children during pre-epidemic, epidemic and post epidemic periods, taken separately, has been analyzed by a specially developed method of statistical analysis. With the immune stratum remaining the same, differences in morbidity rates in different years of the cycle have been revealed. The study has demonstrated that in the presence of a high level of the immune stratum measles morbidity retains its cyclic character, which may be attributed to the action of other factors on this process. Morbidity rate has been found to be influenced by such factor as the frequency of contacts with the source of infection, and in this connection the risk of contacting measles by nonimmune children varies in different age groups of children. Regressive equations have been constructed on the basis of the above approach, thus permitting the prognostication of measles morbidity for the coming year in individual groups of children, which is of importance for the scientifically substantiated and oriented correction of antiepidemic measures.

[The use of computers and mathematical methods for optimizing epidemic control measures with respect to measles infection]. / Ispol'zovanie EVM i matematicheskikh metodov dlia optimizatsii protivoépidemicheskikh meropriiatii v otnoshenii korevoi infektsii.

The potentialities of computers for the study of the effectiveness of immunization have been demonstrated and the mathematical model for the prediction of the proportion of children, seronegative to measles, derived on the basis of the data on the average measles morbidity in different groups for a given period. A multifactor analysis of a large scope of data obtained in seroepidemiological survey and a retrospective analysis of measles morbidity on the basis of data collected in two districts of Moscow have been carried out with the use of computers and mathematical methods.

[The validation of the expediency of a review of the times for revaccinating children against measles]. / Obosnovanie tselesoobraznosti peresmotra srokov revaktsinatsii detei protiv kori.

Basing on the results of seroepidemiological study, carried out in two districts of Moscow by different methods, cluster selection method including, the authors have developed the following recommendations aimed at improving the strategy of revaccination against measles: (1) selective revaccination of only seronegative children or those with poor antimeasles immunity should be carried out, thus making it possible to reduce the number of susceptible children and diminish the risk of postimmunization reactions and complications; (2) when determining the groups of children to be revaccinated and the age suitable for revaccination, one should bear in mind the specific local features of the epidemic process in measles and the morbidity values, as well as the data on antimeasles immunity in children of different age groups; (3) serologic monitoring of the quality and immunologic effectiveness of different batches of live measles vaccine permits timely removal of nonstandard batches from practical use, thus improving the efficacy of vaccinal prophylaxis of measles.

Chronic non-cytopathic infection of human continuous cell lines with mumps virus.

Chronic infection with a vaccine strain of mumps virus (MV) was produced and studied in human cell cultures L-41 and HEp-2. The establishment and course of the infection was not accompanied by cytopathic changes. Among probable protective factors (mechanisms) interferon (IFN) was detected in L-41 culture and defective interfering particles in either cell culture. Their role in the establishment and maintenance of chronic infection was not confirmed, however.

[Cloning in bacterial and yeast vectors of the hepatitis B virus genome]. / Klonirovanie v bakterial'nykh i drozhzhevykh vektorakh genoma virusa gepatita B.

Hepatitis B viral genome was cloned simultaneously with bacterial plasmides pBR 325 and pBR 322. Recombinant plasmides were constructed, containing DNA of hepatitis B virus as well as capable to replication in bacterial and yeast cells. Replication of one of these plasmides was possible if it integrated with chromosomal DNA of yeast target-cells; the other plasmides had a capacity to autonomous replication in yeast cells.

[Incorporation of a DNA replica of the genome of the tick-borne encephalitis virus into cellular DNA]. / Vstraivanie DNK-kopii genoma virusa kleshchevogo éntsefalita v kletochnuiu DNK.

DNA from mouse cells chronically infected with tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) virus was treated with restrictases, the resulting fragments were fractionated by size by gel electrophoresis, denaturated, and transferred from gel on nitro-cellulose filters. The fragments containing virus-specific sequences were detected by hybridization with 32P-DNA replicas of TBE genome RNA synthesized using reverse transcriptase. The presence of virus-specific sequences in DNA fragments from chronically infected cells proves the possibility of integration of DNA-replicas of TBE virus genome and genome of chronically infected cells.

[Chronic tick-bone encephalitis virus infection in continuous human lymphocyte lines studied by molecular hybridization]. / Izuchenie khronicheskoi infektsii virusa kleschevogo éntsefalita v perevivaemykh liniiakh limfotsitov cheloveka metodom molekuliarnoi gibridizatsii.

Chronic infection with tick-borne encephalitis virus (Sophyin strain) has been established in continuous lines of human lymphocytes (of T- and B-origin). In 3 lines under study, the cultured virus at the level of the 15th passage had a titre of 7.22-8.02 lg LD50ml, the virus-specific antigen was determined in the cytoplasm of 80% of T-lymphocytes (line 1387). The method of RNA-DNA hybridization demonstrated the presence of virus-specific sequences in DNA preparations from infected cells in amounts not exceeding 1 copy of virus genome per 10-25 cells.