[Disinfection of ophthalmologic tonometers]. / K problematice dezinfekce ocních tonometru.

The authors describe an automatic instrument of their own design for disinfection of ophthalmological tonometers by germicide radiation. The tests of effectiveness against microbes (Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa), spores of Bacillus mesentericus, adenoviruses and viruses of Herpes simplex provided evidence of a high disinfectant potency of the apparatus.

[Epidemic keratoconjunctivitis. Laboratory study of patients infected with adenovirus type 8]. / Epidemická keratokonjunktivitída. Laboratorní studie nemocných, infikovaných adenovirem typu 8.

The authors tried to detect, using different methods, the causal agent of the disease in eight patients with epidemic keratoconjunctivitis. From the conjunctival sacs of one ambulatory patient and six of seven patients hospitalized on account of other eye diseases they isolated 11 strains of adenovirus type 8 on cell cultures from human embryonic lungs. Using direct and indirect ELISA, they detected adenovirus antigen in four of seven examined smears from the conjunctival sac without previous cultivation. In smears from the nasopharynx they did not detect adenoviruses by either of the two methods. Antibodies were assessed by micromodifications of the virus neutralizing test, by the complement fixation reaction and ELISA. A significant rise of antibodies against adenovirus type 8 and adenovirus hexone resp. was found in different six of eight examined pairs of sera. The combination of these three serological methods made it possible to confirm adenovirus infection in all eight patients.

Contribution to laboratory diagnosis of mumps and parainfluenza.

Specific IgM and IgG antibodies to mumps virus (MV) were detected in sera of mumps-patients by ELISA in agreement with the results obtained by indirect immunofluorescence (IF). Of given sera 37.5% contained IgM reacting in indirect ELISA also with the antigens of parainfluenza virus (PiV) T3. In all patients with respiratory illness over 2 years of age, the significant increase of antibodies to PiV in haemagglutination inhibition (HI) test was in good correlation with serum IgM and IgG antibody levels to PiV T3 determined by ELISA; but, in addition, 30.7% of these sera cross-reacted with MV antigens. The cross-reactions were eliminated by using MV-nucleocapsid antigen in indirect ELISA, or in direct ELISA using the peroxidase-labelled whole virion antigen. In some children under two years of age a discrepancy was observed between the significant increase of serum antibodies in HI and the inability to detect specific IgM antibodies by means of ELISA in their sera. The low-avidity antibodies appearing after primary PiV infection were probably washed off during the ELISA procedure.

Polyradiculoneuritis in children groups during simultaneous circulation of enteroviruses and adenoviruses.

Two cases of polyradiculoneuritis in children were noted during January, 1984. Each girl was a member of a different group of children: the first group was newly constituted of children from various remote regions of Czechoslovakia in a Medical Institution, the second one included children attending the same nursery school for a long time. In both groups, all or most of the children went through one or two respiratory infections which preceded the development of a paralytic disease. From the first girl, coxsackievirus A9 was recovered in nasopharyngeal swabs and in a stool sample. Among contacts in the Children's Medical Institution, a concurrent circulation of this enterovirus and of an adenovirus type 3 was demonstrated by isolation attempts and confirmed by serological examinations. From the second girl, coxsackie A9 and an adenovirus type 29 were demonstrated in the same stool sample and a simultaneous circulation of both virus species among the nursery school and family contacts was proved by isolation attempts and by serological investigations. The concurrent, overlapping or sequential circulation of adenoviruses and enteroviruses may perhaps contribute to a compromised immunity resulting in a manifestation of paralysis.

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.

High and prolonged incidence of poliovirus strains during 1979 in North Bohemia. Isolations from unusual materials.

During March 1979 - February 1980, 53 strains of polioviruses types 2 and 3 were isolated from human specimens and from sewage samples, 52.8% of them on secondary monkey kidney cultures, 47.2% on diploid fibroblasts of human embryonic lung. Type 3 grew more often on monkey cell cultures, type 2 on human ones. Both types of poliovirus circulated in children and adult population during the whole year. Polioviruses were isolated from cerebrospinal fluids of 2 patients without any symptom of paralytic poliomyelitis: an intermediate type 3 in the course of a serologically proved tick-borne encephalitis, and a type 2, different in rct-marker from the vaccinal variant, in the course of a serologically proved parotitis with meningoencephalitis and pancreatitis.

Mixed infections with influenza A and B viruses.

In the course of an influenza A and B epidemic, influenza virus was isolated from 46 patients. Seven of these patients showed seroconversion against influenza virus plus another respiratory virus. In 9 patients, simultaneous antibody increase against both influenza A and B viruses was demonstrated, but only a single virus type was isolated. In one case the isolated virus population could be separated into type A and B viruses.

[An interferon-like substance derived from bird fibroblasts in the treatment of human recurrent herpes simplex]. / Interferonähnliche Substanz aus Vogelfibroblasten in der Behandlung des menschlich rezidivierenden Herpes simplex.

In a clinical study lasting 15 months 42 patients suffering from herpes simplex were locally treated with an interferonlike substance prepared on avian fibroblast cultures. In 90% of all cases a certain improvement was achieved. In 60% reduced intensity and in 57% a shortening of prodromal symptoms was established, reduced dimensions of skin lesions were noted in 75%. In 21 patients only abortive forms without vesicles appeared. The mean duration of the herpetic episodes was reduced from 10.1 days to 4.5 days. Finally the possible mechanism of this favourable effect are discussed.

Adenovirus type 29--etiologic agent of human respiratory disease?

Isolation of adenovirus type 29 from nasopharyngeal swab and from stool sample of a 4-year-old boy with bronchopneumonia and the significant rise of type-specific virus-neutralizing antibodies suggest the possible etiologica role of this adenovirus type in human respiratory disease.

A mixed outbreak of epidemic keratoconjunctivitis due to adenoviruses types 29 and 8.

An outbreak of epidemic keratoconjunctivitis (EKC) occurred in northern Bohemia in the summer of 1975. One hundred and four patients were treated. Four strains of adenovirus type 29 with low or strong pronounced cross-neutralization against anti-Ad 15 reference serum, and 2 adenovirus type 8 were isolated of 4 patients. Type 8 strains were only obtained from conjunctiva, type 29 also from stools. From one patient, type 8 from conjunctiva and type 29 from stool were isolated simultaneously. Out of 22 patients with demonstrable antibody rise, a monotypic response in virus-neutralization test against type 29 was detected in 13 and a mixed response against types 29 and 8 in nine. An antibody rise was most frequently demonstrated by virus-neutralization test, the frequence for VNT alone being equal to the frequency of antibody rise as detected by VNT, hemagglutination-inhibition test and complement-fixation test in combination.