Knowledge of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance in patients followed by family physicians.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to evaluate factors associated with knowledge of antibiotics and drug resistance. METHODS: A questionnaire was handed out by 14 family physicians to their patients between December 20, 2014 and April 20, 2015 in Rethel (North-East of France). We conducted a cross-sectional study using a logistical regression model to assess factors associated with antibiotic knowledge. Three criteria were used to assess that knowledge. RESULTS: Overall, 293 questionnaires were analysed; 48% of patients had received antibiotics in the previous 12 months. Only 44% and 26% gave a correct answer for the statements "Antibiotics are effective against bacteria and ineffective against viruses" and "Antibiotic resistance decreases if the antibiotic use decreases", respectively. Characteristics such as female sex, age>30 years, high level of education, high professional categories, and having received antibiotic information by the media were associated with high level of knowledge about antibiotics and/or antibiotic resistance. In contrast, having received antibiotic information from family physicians was not associated with good knowledge. CONCLUSION: Although media awareness campaigns had an independent impact on a higher public knowledge of antibiotics, the overall public knowledge remains low. It would be necessary to strengthen antibiotic campaigns with clearer information on the relation between the excessive use of antibiotics and the increased risk of antibiotic resistance. Family physicians should be more involved to improve antibiotic knowledge among target groups such as men, young patients, and people from a poor social and cultural background.

Results of [131I]metaiodobenzylguanidine therapy administered to three patients with malignant pheochromocytoma.

Three patients with malignant pheochromocytoma were treated with [131I]metaiodobenzylguanidine (131I-MIBG). In two patients with widespread metastatic disease, the effect of treatment was palliative and of short duration. In the third case, with only residual tumor and no metastases, the treatment was effective after 22 GBq of 131I-MIBG.

Double-stranded ribonucleic acid from Mengo virus: production, characterization, and interferon-inducing and antiviral activities in comparison with polyriboinosinic-polyribocytidylic acid.

Mengo virus double-stranded ribonucleic acid (dsRNA) was obtained on a semi-industrial scale from infected cultures of BHK-21 cells grown in suspension. Yield of the extraction and purification operations was small (about 22 mg from 10(11) cells in a 100-liter culture). Physicochemical characterization of this dsRNA gave an estimated molecular weight close to 4 x 10(6), a density of 1.59 (similar to that of the poliovirus dsRNA), and a thermal transition midpoint of 94 C. This product was a little more toxic for the mouse, by the intravenous route, than polyriboinosinic . polyribocytidylic acid (poly I:C) and strictly comparable in this respect to poliovirus dsRNA. The interferon-inducing capacity in the mouse and the antiviral activities in the mouse (infected with encephalomyocarditis, Semliki Forest, influenza, foot-and-mouth disease, and murine hepatitis viruses) and in the rabbit (Shope fibroma virus) of the ultraviolet light-inactivated product were practically identical, on a quantitative basis, with those of poly I:C. In vitro and in vivo experiments showed the dsRNA from Mengo virus to be slightly but significantly more resistant than poly I:C to the inactivating effect of human serum.