The production and influence of anti-Vibrio parahaemolytics IgY against experimental infection of V. parahaemolyticus in cultured Fenneropenaeus indicus.

The increasing number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria emphasizes the need to find alternatives to complement antibiotics. Immunotherapy may also be used as a complementary treatment against pathogens that are difficult to treat with traditional antibiotics. Eggs are normal dietary components and there is practically no risk of toxic side effects of IgY given orally. In the present study, pathogenic Vibrio parahaemolyticus was isolated from infected shrimp and studied their virulence factors including LD50 (by challenging with Fenneropenaeus indicus), proteolytic and hemolytic activities. The edible antibody IgY was raised by injecting the antigen of Extra Cellular Products (ECP) of V. parahaemolyticus to Gallus gallus domesticus during layoff period with and without the herbal immunoadjuvants, Asparagus racemosus and Glycine max (V.p wo: V. parahaemolyticus ECP without adjuvant; V.p A: V. parahaemolyticus ECP with A. racemosus and V.p G: V. parahaemolyticus ECP with G. max). Eggs were collected after five weeks of immunization and anti- V. parahaemolyticus IgY was extracted and purified. Physicochemical properties of the immunized Chickens' serum and anti- V. parahaemolyticus IgY's cross reactivity, growth inhibition assay, single radial immunodiffusion assay and bacterial agglutination were studied. The results revealed that, the serum protein parameters were significantly (P ≤ 0.001) increased in experimental groups from control group. The antibody raised with immunoadjuvants had significantly (P ≤ 0.001) higher cross reactivity, growth inhibition, single radial immunoassay and bacterial agglutination when compared with and without immunoadjuvant and control groups. Further the control and experimental anti-V. parahaemolytics IgY coated artificial diets were fed to F. indicus for 60 days. After 30 and 60 dpv (days of post vaccination), shrimps from each groups were challenged with virulent V. parahaemolyticus and studied the survival, haematological and immunological parameters. The IgY coated diets (V. p A and V.p G) fed shrimps had decreased cumulative mortality, significantly (P ≤ 0.001) improved coagulase activity, total haemocyte count and oxyhaemocyanin. The immunological parameters such as prophenoloxidase, intracellular anion production, lysozyme production and phagocytosis also improved significantly (P ≤ 0.001) in IgY treated shrimps.

Successful bone marrow transplant for Fanconi anaemia in transformation.

We present a patient who was diagnosed as suffering from Fanconi anaemia at the age of 36 years. At the time of diagnosis his bone marrow showed features of pre-leukaemic transformation. He received an allogeneic bone marrow transplant (BMT) from his HLA-identical sibling. The post-transplant course was unremarkable with evidence of trilineage engraftment at day +32 and no acute or chronic GVHD. He is well with sustained engraftment and no haematological evidence of Fanconi anaemia 18 months post-transplant.

Family welfare planning programmes in Tamil Nadu: an appraisal of fertility trends.

PIP: Over the past few years advancements in family welfare programs have occurred in India. One state in the Indian Union, Tamil Nadu, has had significant success in its family planning strategies. Examined is the fertility trends over a period of years within this area. Focus is on fertility decline, calculated from changing birthrates. Decline was differentiated in terms of crude birth rates. Chosen were standardized birth rates adjusted for age (females 15-49 years old), and standardized birth rates adjusted for both age structure and marital status. Family planning programs in Tamil Nadu were classified according to periods of years - 1956-1971 as the pre-intensive program period, and 1971-1986 as the intensive program period. Methodology included simple correlation and regression with additional computations, and multilinear regression measuring impacts on fertility decline of a small number of various factors. Conclusions drawn showed a swift decline in fertility in Tamil Nadu from 1971-1988, more so than during the period of 1956-1971. Family welfare programs were examined as well as through 4 key variables: infant mortality rates, female employment, female educational attainment, and family planning utilization. All 4 variables have shown a positive influence on fertility decline in Tamil Nadu. Both crude and standardized birth rates, as shown by measuring births averted during 1986, can be effectively used in producing births averted in any particular future time period.^ieng

Health care provision and access opportunity in Madras city.

This short paper has reported on the health care provision and access opportunity in Madras city, India, using three city areas as sample areas. Maps have indicated that a general concentration of both GP and specialist practices, although access opportunities in the peripheries do not point up to paucity of services. The study is a report on private practices that is an important element in the health services provision.

PIP: Recent research in Madras, India was done to assess the state of private health care facilities. The 2 types of doctors considered are the generalists (GP) and the specialist. There are public hospitals in each of the 3 main areas of the city and the distribution of private clinics run by both generalists and specialists is widespread. Most of the private practitioners work in the public institutions as well as their private practices. In Royapettah and K.K. Nager, the GPs practice the most hours, but in Anna Nager the gynecologists and child specialists practice the most hours. In all areas the specialists put in more hours, weekly, than the GP. Most of the practices are run on an appointment basis during normal working hours. The consulting periods for GP's are 5-10 minutes and specialist average from 15-45 minutes for each patient. The geographical locations of the GP's are clustered in Royapettah and dispersed in Anna Nagar and K.K. Nagar. The specialists are centralized in Anna Nager and dispersed in K.K. Nagar and Royapettah. The centralization of the private health services provided access that diminishes at the peripheries of the city area. There are facilities on the peripheral areas of Anna Nager and K.K. Nager and these practices have a wider service than the inner city areas.

Rearrangement of the bcr gene in Philadelphia chromosome-negative chronic myeloid leukemia.

We studied the clinical, hematologic, cytogenetic, and molecular biologic features of seven patients with Philadelphia (Ph1) chromosome-negative chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). In five cases the hematologic findings were indistinguishable from those of patients with classical Ph1-positive disease. Myeloid cells were studied by chromosome-banding techniques. One patient had a masked Ph1 chromosome (with translocation t(4;9;22)), one had a deletion involving chromosome 16, and one had a small minority population of 22q- cells without 9q+ but otherwise normal metaphases; metaphases from the other four patients were entirely normal. DNA prepared from the myeloid cells was digested with the restriction enzymes EcoRI, HindIII, BamHI and BglII. Southern analysis using a 0.6-kb fragment of the breakpoint cluster region (bcr) gene showed the presence in each patient's DNA of a germline fragment together with a rearranged fragment or fragments with at least one of the restriction enzymes. We conclude that genomic changes in the bcr gene characteristic of CML can be present in the absence of a Ph1 chromosome.

Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: a survey from a district general hospital.

We report a retrospective survey of 167 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) seen at a district general hospital between 1 August 1971 and 1 August 1983. Details of their clinical presentation, histology, therapy, response rates and survival are presented. The patient population reported is generally older than that seen at specialist centres and has a greater proportion of tumours with low-grade histology. Whereas specialist centres see a pre-selected population of patients, our data may be from a more representative group and this gives a truer incidence of this disease in the general population. The remission rates and overall survival of our patients are comparable to those achieved at specialist centres. We conclude that it is both feasible and desirable for patients with NHL to be assessed and treated in a district general hospital with a radiotherapy department.

Health services and administration in Madras City: problems and professional perceptions.

The paper discusses in four parts material related to health services and administration in Madras City. A historical account on the health services establishment and administration is first presented. This is followed by the structural and organizational characteristics of the present health service system. A brief analysis of health services in Madras City and the problems they face in their day-to-day operations is then presented. And finally the discussion turns to professional perceptions on the administrative problems and their redress where we see different views of people handling at present the several departments in public hospitals of the city. The perceptions are such that they leave us enormously concerned with the state of affairs in public health services delivery system.

Infectious hepatitis in urban India.

The paper is about infectious hepatitis in urban India. The discussion is on two case studies: one of Madras, and the other of Madurai: two major cities in the State of Tamilnadu, South India. The Madras study is on the temporal and spatial analysis of the distribution and diffusion of hepatitis during 1971-1978. The Madras study also relates age to incidence, the major conclusion being that children are more susceptible to hepatitis than elders. The diffusion of hepatitis is said to occur in a wave - like form, covering newer areas and intensifying in time in core areas. The Madurai study is about the epidemic of hepatitis during January-October of 1981. Relating incidence with share of slum population, and number of borewells in city localities, the study yields a positive relation between them with a correlation coefficient value of .7424 and .7812, respectively. General lack of environmental quality and use of contaminated water for domestic purposes appear to be causes of high incidence of infectious hepatitis.

Brainstorming: an application for programme planning in family welfare planning.

There have been many participatory devices developed and applied for programme planning in a variety of fields by the social scientists in the recent past, of which brainstorming is one. This device has been widely used in interpretive structural modelling to higher education programme planning, programme planning for housing in urban development, etc. Following these studies, application of brainstorming to develop a preliminary operational value system as a structural model for programme planning in Family planning was attempted. The products of a sequence of three sessions of approximately 5 hours each generated 39 needs, 28 alterables, and 22 constraints, all of which were used to set Family Planning objectives /34/. The objectives thus derived were used in building an intent structure to understand their priorities in plan formulation and eventual implementation.

Complete recovery of histiocytic medullary reticulosis-like syndrome in a child with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

A 6-year-old boy with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) developed a haemophagocytic syndrome resembling histiocytic medullary reticulosis (HMR) but made a complete recovery on supportive treatment. This was subsequently found to have been associated with a parainfluenzal infection. It is suggested that HMR in immunocompromised hosts may represent a reactive process to an opportunistic viral infection and that the use of chemotherapy in these patients may be deleterious.

Megakaryoblastic leukemia presenting as acute myelofibrosis -- a study of four cases with the platelet-peroxidase reaction.

Acute myelofibrosis (AM) or malignant myelosclerosis is a myeloprofilerative syndrome in which bone marrow fibrosis is associated with a proliferation of immature myeloid cells. In four patients with typical AM, investigated by the platelet-peroxidase reaction at ultrastructural level, the blast cells were found to be megakaryoblasts. One patient, treated with the drug combination DAT, achieved a complete remission of 5 mo duration. This study supports the view that megakaryoblastic leukemia is the most frequent underlying cause of AM and proposes that it should be classified as a form of acute myeloid leukemia.

'Prolymphocytoid' transformation of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.

We report clinical, morphological and surface marker studies on seven patients with the common type of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) whose disease underwent an insidious though progressive change in character with increasing refractoriness to treatment. This transformation was accompanied by the appearance of a population of immature-appearing cells in the peripheral blood which resembled prolymphocytes, both at light and electron microscopy. The characteristic morphological feature was the presence of two distinct populations of cells, the typical CLL lymphocytes and the 'prolymphocytoid' cells. These cells retained the surface characteristics of CLL, i.e. the information of mouse RBC rosettes and sparse surface-bound immunoglobulin. This transformation can be distinguished by morphological and surface marker criteria from acute leukaemia occurring in CCL, Richter's syndrome and prolymphocytic leukaemia. The recognition of this group of CLL patients may add a new prognostic index to CLL and may help plan subsequent trials for the treatment of the disease.