(a) General description and geographical position. Belgaum is a small town and military cantonment situated in the southern division of the Bombay Presidency, 75 miles inland from the western sea coast of India. It is situated 15° 51′ N. and 74° 31′ E. It lies on a plateau 2500 feet above the sea level on the northern slope of a water-course. The town is built on laterite which lies upon Deccan trap. The country round is fertile and well wooded.

The physiological behaviour of clinical Aeromonas spp. isolates was compared following culture in a conventional broth and human pooled ileostomy fluid (PIF). Protein expression was markedly affected by the growth medium, with an overall reduction in whole cell proteins in bacteria grown in ileostomy fluid. In addition, novel outer membrane proteins were produced in PIF but not in broth. The majority of A. hydrophila and A. sobria isolates produced toxin in both broth and PIF. whereas no cytotoxin positive A. caviae were found. Toxin titres were at least two doubling dilutions higher in 40% and 21% of A. hydrophila and A. sobria isolates, respectively, following culture in brain heart infusion broth compared with PIF. Bacterial adherence to Vero and A-549 cells was significantly more common in A. hydrophila (53%) and A. sobria (64%) than in A. caviae (15%) (P < 0·01). We observed increased adherence by 6 Aeromonas strains previously classified as adherence-positive, but not by 6 non-adherers, in PIF compared with brain heart infusion broth. The influence of growth medium on the expression of potential virulence determinants by Aeromonas spp. provides a rationale for the use of human ileostomy fluid in future in vitro studies, in order to simulate the nutrient conditions found in vivo.

Stools, known to have contained salmonellas were cultured in three enrichment media on arrival at the laboratory. The three media were laboratory prepared selenite F, laboratory prepared Muller-Kauffmann tetrathionate and commercially obtained Oxoid Muller-Kauffmann tetrathionate (CM343). Where faecal samples were sufficiently large, they were stored at room temperature and re-examined using the same three enrichment broths. Whether fresh or stored stools were investigated, the laboratory prepared media were significantly more efficient than the commercial medium. In a straight comparison of the two laboratory prepared media, no significant difference in efficiency was evident with fresh stool samples. With stored specimens, however, Muller-Kauffmann tetrathionate was significantly better than selenite F. This finding might be relevant in examining samples delayed in the post.

By mid-2005, less than 17% of smallpox vaccine doses distributed to American states for health-care workers (HCWs) during the CDC campaign had been used. To understand how states responded, vaccination patterns were studied. Metrics were calculated to compare the level of preparedness for a smallpox outbreak in terms of absolute numbers of HCWs vaccinated compared to the percentage of doses distributed to each state, the rate of vaccination per capita population, and the percentage of HCWs vaccinated compared to the number the CDC recommended. States were then ranked. Results showed that rankings for all four metrics were statistically different (P<0·0001). In addition, when ranks were assigned to quartiles, the states directly affected on 9/11/01 ranked lowest and states widely perceived to be at lower terror risk ranked in the top. These results underscore the need to critically examine how to define an appropriate level of preparedness for a smallpox outbreak.

(1) The question of the alleged spread of infection by direct contact with a suffering case has been discussed. Our observations in a plague hospital and with material obtained from this hospital lead us to conclude that such a mode of spread does not exist. Support is given to this view by a consideration of the influence of imported cases on the spread of the epidemic and by an investigation of the relative frequency of single and multiple cases in houses and buildings. We have, further, referred to our experience that a rat epizootic is alone sufficient to account for a widespread dissemination of infection throughout a locality. A review of the whole of the evidence on this point brings us to the conclusion that contact with plague cases plays no part in the spread of the epidemic.

(2) In discussing the question of the infectivity of houses, evidence has been brought forward which points to the rat flea being the transmitting agent of infection from rat to man. Further, reasons have been given for the view that plague does not persist in a locality apart from infection amongst the rats.

(3) From arguments brought forward in the discussion of the two previous questions we conclude that the epidemic is wholly dependent upon the epizootics.

(4) It has been shown that infection may be transported to a distance by means of rat fleas in clothing or merchandise and that such infection, when imported into a hitherto uninfected locality, may give rise to an epizootic in the rats.

(5) Our observations lead us to conclude that plague in domestic animals in Bombay either does not occur or occurs so seldom that it cannot be said to possess any significance from an epidemiological standpoint.

The outbreak of poliomyelitis in Finland in 1984 was caused by a wild strain of poliovirus 3 with uncommon molecular and antigenic properties. We prepared a synthetic oligonucleotide probe complementary to nucleotides 494–510 in the 5′-noncoding part of the genome of a representative strain of the outbreak. This short nucleotide stretch was found to be relatively well conserved within the outbreak and uncommon among 82 independent poliovirus isolates. It may thus be a useful marker for screening isolates to identify those requiring more detailed genetic comparison. The sequences of the corresponding region of the genome are known for 32 separate poliovirus strains and 3 coxsackie B virus strains and show 6 fully conserved nucleotides that could assume a constant hairpin-loop position in a hypothetical secondary structure of the RNA. This could explain the persistence of a particular 17 nucleotide sequence for 40 years in nature in this highly variable region of the poliovirus genome.

An interference phenomenon was produced by the intraperitoneal injection of broth culture dilutions of Pasteurella pestis grown at 28° C. into small white rats.

At a critical level of approximately 106Past. pestis L37 marked interference was produced. Doses of 104 or 107 killed rats readily.

Interference was produced by the addition of killed organisms, a cell-free vaccine or a live vaccine, to small lethal doses of L37.

Non-specific interference was produced by the intravenous injection of Indian ink prior to the intraperitoneal challenge with Past. pestis L37.

The outbreak about to be described raises issues of practical importance which appear to make it worthy of record, in spite of the fact that owing to fear of injury to a particular dairyman it was impracticable to complete the evidence by making inquires at every house supplied with milk by him.

The question of standardising bacteriological methods is at present under discussion and, although it is most undesirable that any one method should be forced on all bacteriologists, it is certainly resonable that any method which has given excellent results in the hands of a number of independent workers should have a strong recommendation.

Experiments begun in 1925 in Egypt led the writer quickly to realise that comparable results in nutrition studies upon pigeons could only be obtained by a careful choice of the breed. It was found that lightly coloured birds and especially white bids were extremely sensitive to climatic change or to the harmful effects on an inadequate diet.

As part of the preparation of a large cohort study in the entire German population, this study examined the feasibility of cat and dog owners collecting nasal and oral swabs of their animals at home as a method of assessing exposure to zoonoses. In veterinary clinics in Hannover, Germany, 100 pet owners were recruited. Nasal and oral swabs of pets were taken by a veterinarian at the clinic and owners took swabs at home. Swabs were analysed regarding bacterial growth and compared (owner vs. vet) using Cohen's kappa and McNemar's test. The return rate of kits was 92%, and 77% of owners thought it unnecessary to have veterinarian assistance to swab the mouth. McNemar's test results: oral swabs 78% agreement with Gram-positive bacterial growth, 87% agreement with Gram-negative bacterial growth; with similar results for nasal swabs. Although sample quality differed, this method allowed the receipt of swabs from pets in order to obtain information about colonization with zoonotic pathogens.

Bloodstream fungal infections have a high mortality rate. There is little data about the long-term mortality rate of fungaemia.This study aimed to explore the mortality of fungaemia and the influencing factors associated with death. In total, 204 intensive care unit (ICU) patients with fungaemia from Multi-parameter Intelligent Monitoring in Intensive Care-III (MIMIC-III) Database were studied. Age, gender, major underlying diseases, data about vital signs and blood test results were analysed to identify the predictors of the mortality and prognosis of fungaemia in ICU patients. Cox regression models were constructed, together with Kaplan−Meier survival curves. The 30-day, 1-year, 2-year, 3-year and 4-year mortality rates were 41.2%, 62.3%, 68.1%, 72.5% and 75%, respectively. Age (P ＜ 0.001, OR = 1.530; P ＜ 0.001, OR = 1.485)，serum bilirubin (P = 0.016, OR = 2.125；P = 0.001, OR = 1.748) and international normalised ratio (INR) (P = 0.001, OR = 2.642; P ＜ 0.001 OR = 2.065) were predictors of both the 30-day and 4-year mortality rates. Renal failure (P = 0.009, OR = 1.643) performed good in prediction of the 4-year mortality. The mortality of fungaemia is high. Age，the serum bilirubin and INR are good predictors of the 30-day and 4-year mortality rates of fungaemia. Renal failure has good performance in predicting the long-term mortality.

A case-control study was conducted in a brucellosis low-prevalence area of NW Spain to determine factors associated with high within-flock small-ruminant brucellosis prevalence in 1998. Forty-one cases and 69 controls were selected and information from both official sources and personal interviews was retrieved for every flock. The relationship between variables obtained and flock status was assessed by unconditional multivariable logistic regression analysis. The introduction of replacement animals into the flock, the presence of older farmers, an inadequate brucellosis vaccination programme and higher flock seroprevalence in the town in 1997 were positively associated with case flocks. Thus, specific actions directed at farms presenting these characteristics should be included within official eradication programmes. In addition, for the 1999 campaign the time from sampling to culling the seropositive animals correlated positively (r=0·53; P<0·01) with the flock seroprevalence the following year, suggesting the need for a faster removal of the infected animals to increase the efficacy of the eradication campaigns.

FOr many years it has been a matter of common knowledge that bacteriophages can be easily isolated from water supplies. They were first demonstrated in water by Dumas in 1920, and many authors have since confirmed his observation (Arloing & Chavanne, 1925; Manoliu & Costin, 1925; Arloing & Sempé, 1926; Bilouet, 1926; d'Herelle, 1926; Monteiro, 1926; Bujanowski, 1929; Gildemeister & Watanabe, 1931; Stewart & Ghosal, 1931–1932; Schuurman & Schuurman-ten Bokkel Huinink, 1934; Dienert, 1934; Vagedes & Gildemeister, 1934; Panayotatou, 1935; Nick, 1936). These workers have recorded the presence of phages lysing dysentery, coliform, typhoid, paratyphoid, and, sometimes, cholera organisms in a wide variety of water supplies: e.g. lake, river, stream, canal and tap waters; phages have also been detected in sea water close to the shore.

1. The annual number of notified cases of erysipelas is approximately 17,000, and assuming complete notification of the disease the general case fatality is approximately 6 per cent.

2. The death-rate, deaths in terms of the population, varies according to age, being highest at the beginning and end of life and at a minimum between the age of 5 and 10 years. The mortality of males is identical with that of females up to age 25, but is afterwards in excess.

3. The disease has in recent years a well-marked seasonal incidence—a winter and spring excess with a summer defect. In this respect it resembles scarlet and puerperal fevers and, although its seasonal incidence has changed in the course of time, the alteration has not been nearly so pronounced as that for scarlet fever.

4. The incidence is highly correlated with overcrowded conditions, the correlation coefficient being in some periods as high as + 0·83 in the divisions of London and + 0·70 in the sanitary districts of Glasgow.

5. The morbidity from erysipelas is fairly well correlated in time with that from scarlet fever and erysipelas, but in London, in the urban and in the rural districts of England and Wales, the spacial correlation is very small. On the other hand, in Glasgow the spacial correlation between the incidence of erysipelas and that of scarlet fever is highly negative, −0·718 ±0·109, whereas between erysipelas and puerperal fever the association is positive, + 0·689±0·109 during the period 1903–8, but these values were much reduced when the partial coefficients were calculated.

The variously coloured patches appearing on the surface of chilled beef are caused by fungi. Amongst these, Cladosporium herbarum, producing black spots, is the only fungus that has become specially adapted for flourishing on such an unusual substratum, and may in consequence be expected to continue and even increase in quantity on its new matrix, unless stringent measures are adopted. This fungus is not pathogenic, and the only effect caused by its presence is the unsightly appearance of the meat and consequent deterioration in value. If extensive, the meat may be rendered unsaleable.

The beef is infected with the “black spot” fungus before, it is shipped, and to arrest the continuance of this infection special measures should be taken, with the object of exterminating the fungus, which in its specialised form can only occur in the vicinity of the establishment where meat is prepared for shipment.

Noroviruses (NoVs) are major causal agents of acute gastroenteritis in humans. NoV GII.4 is the predominant genotype globally. However, uncommon and minor types of NoVs are consistently detected and some have been shown to dominate over GII.4. Therefore, the prevalence of dominant and uncommon NoVs makes the identification of these viruses important for the prediction and prevention of pandemics. In this study, the full-genome sequence of a NoV (strain JW) detected in Korea was extensively characterized. The full-length genome was 7510 nucleotides long, and phylogenetic analysis based on the whole-genome sequences, including open reading frame (ORF)1, ORF2, and ORF3, indicated that it belonged to the GII.21 genotype. Strain JW showed maximum identity with strain YO284; however, comparison of the amino acid sequence of ORF2, which functions as an antigen, showed substitutions in several amino acids. GII.21 is not a prevalent epidemiological agent of acute gastroenteritis in humans, but it is consistently found in gastroenteritis patients from several countries. The present study provides the first full-genome sequence analysis of NoV GII.21 isolated from a patient in Korea. Our findings provide not only valuable genome information but also data for epidemiology studies, epidemic prevention, and vaccine development strategies.

In the villages of Fiji, apart from Viti Levu, rubella is a disease occurring solely in widely spaced epidemics. Some villages may not be infected for over 20 years and will then contain substantial numbers of susceptible women of child-bearing age.

Evidence is produced that haemagglutination-inhibiting (H.I.) antibody to rubella is very long lasting in Fijians. The infectivity of the virus is discussed and it is suggested that, on the average, 50% of susceptibles are infected in a Fijian village during a rubella epidemic, but there are large variations.

In South Africa one finds quite a number of ailments occurring in the domesticated animals, and while the onset, symptoms, and morbid anatomy of those affected show the ailments to be peculiar to Africa, the names given to the maladies are unknown in any other country.