Pharmaceutical and bacteriological study on povidone-iodine sugar ointment.

Povidone-iodine sugar ointment is an excellent preparation for the treatment of decubitus. It has been used as an intrahospital preparation made according to the formula each hospital decided on from experience. Although commercial products have also been developed and used, they are too expensive. The efficacy of a povidone-iodine sugar ointment formulation which can be prepared by a single method and which has the stability and antibacterial activity equal to commercially available products was evaluated. As the test drugs, one commercially available product (UP), and three preparations with different formulas (P-1, P-2 and P-3) were used. All of these test drugs were stored at 20 and 40 degrees C. Specimens were sampled immediately after storage and after 20, 60, 90, 120 and 150 days and examined pharmaceutically (measurement of pH value and determinations of available iodine and sucrose levels). For the determination of bacteriological effects, 5 standard strains of 5 genera and 5 strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) were used and the time required to kill the bacteria was determined. For UP and P-3, no changes were seen pharmaceutically after 150 days of storage at 20 and 40 degrees C. However, MRSA could not be killed within 30 min. P-1 and P-2 showed remarkable changes pharmaceutically after 60 days of storage at 40 degrees C and could not be used any more. It became possible to make a preparation of povidone-iodine sugar ointment which has a stability almost similar to that of UP. Moreover, such a preparation can be made at low cost. However, since the bactericidal activity against MRSA was not higher than those of other drugs, the future task is to improve the bactericidal activity.

Tasmanian Thyroid Advisory Committee. Study in disease surveillance, 1950-1979.

Tasmania has had a long-standing endemic goitre problem. Attempts over the period from 1949 to 1965 to correct iodine deficiency in school-children and young women met with only partial success. In 1966, iodization of bread was introduced with suitable legislative authority. Within six months, an increased incidence of thyrotoxicosis was noted in thyroid clinics in Launceston and Hobart. In 1967, a Thyroid Advisory Committee was set up to advise the Minister of Health. This Committee included clinicians, nutritionists, epidemiologists, and subsequently veterinarians and dairy technologists as well as members of public health departments. A number of contributions to the scientific literature have been made by individual members. However, the major function of the Committee has been to provide multidisciplinary investigation and review of findings related to the increased incidence of thyrotoxicosis. The Committee has played an important role in an area of environmental surveillance. It provides a useful precedent for the monitoring of other environmental situations-and a reminder of the need to anticipate unexpected health consequences after community intervention measures.

Some structure-activity relationships of iodophorous iodine complex compounds. Part I. Chemistry.

Five nonionic tensides of a general formula 4-R-C6H4O(CH2CH2O)nCH2CH2OH were prepared by modifying in their structure the nature of the substituent in phenyl group and the length of the ethyleneglycol polycondensate linked with the oxygen of the phenol rest. From the tensides obtained in this way appropriate complexes of iodophorous character were prepared by treating them with iodine solution in hydroiodic acid. Using 131I it was possible to obtain complexes labelled with 131I. This in turn enabled us to determine the degree of iodine complexing in the iodophor solutions by means of a radiometric method.