[Significance of adenovirus infections in infancy and early childhood]. / Bedeutung von Adenovirusinfektionen im Säuglings- und Kleinkindesalter.

Of 418 stool specimens of infants tested, 45 specimens contained adenoviruses, mainly the types 1 and 2, 40 and 41. Infections by these types caused symptoms of the gastrointestinal and the respiratory tract to varying degrees: adenoviruses 40 and 41 frequently caused gastroenteritis, adeno 2 was often associated with diarrhoea, adeno 1 mostly caused illness of the respiratory tract necessitating hospitalization of the infants. As adenoviruses may produce--especially during the first years of life--severe diseases of the respiratory and the gastro-intestinal tract, their detection will be of major importance to the pediatrician, the more so as today's methods of detection of adenoviruses are easier and less time-consuming than in the past.

[Inactivation of formaldehyde by semicarbazide in disinfectant tests with viruses]. / Inaktivierung von Formaldehyd durch Semicarbazid bei Desinfektionsmittelversuchen mit Viren.

In suspension tests with viruses formaldehyde is--even in weak concentrations--toxic for tissue cultures. Through addition of semicarbazide in a ratio of one part of 10% semicarbazide to one part of 0.7% formaldehyde, which is equivalent to a molar ratio of 3.8:1, the toxicity will be neutralized if semicarbazide is added to the tissue cultures before their being inoculated with the virus-disinfectant-mixture. In qualitative experiments the toxicity is completely neutralized, in quantitative ones it is reduced by a factor of 10 up to 100. Thus the evaluation of the virucidal capacity of disinfectants containing formaldehyde is conspicuously improved.

[Identification of Corynebacterium diphtheriae by Way of Immunofluorescence (author's transl)]. / Der Nachweis von Cornybacterium diphtheriae durch Immunfluoreszenz.

The immunofluorescence technique (IF) will be demonstrated as a time-saving method for identifying Corynebacterium diphtheriae. In three test-series the IF-test was performed on 74 strains of C. diphtheriae which had been isolated in a small case of epidemic in Gelsenkirchen, on 4 strains of diphtheroids and on some strains to be found in the nasopharynx. All of these strains had been taken from blood agar, 69 toxinogenic strains of C. diphtheriae showed a clear, plainly reproducible fluorescence (Fig. 1). The diphtheroids and the other strains tested could be clearly differentiated from C. diphtheriae as a consequence of absent fluorescence of the cell wall. Because of morphological changes effected by potassium tellurite on C. diphtheriae smears made from tellurite media proved themselves to be inappropriate for the IF-test. Swabs from carriers of bacilli were not available for our IF-test. The results obtained from the blood agar, however, show that the IF-technique has to be considered as an improvement and a broadening of diphtheria diagnostics. New prospects present themselves for effecting the long aimed-at rapid diagnosis within a few hours.