The inverse association of salmonellosis in infancy with allergic rhinoconjunctivitis and asthma at school-age: a longitudinal study.

Background: Respiratory allergies are inversely related to early acquisition of food-borne and fecal-oral infections, consumption of unpasteurized milk, early exposure to stables and high endotoxin concentrations in a farming environment. We tested therefore if infection by Salmonella in early life can protect from development of respiratory allergies later in life.

Methods: During 2003, we studied two groups of Sardinian children (age 6-18 years) who had been hospitalized before 4 years of age (during 1989-2001) with non-typhoid salmonellosis (n = 148) or acute enteritis of nonbacterial etiology (NB-enteritis) (n = 167).

Yersinia enterocolitica causing suppurative arthritis of the shoulder.

Yersinia enterocolitica is a rare cause of extra-intestinal disease. A case in a 60 year old butcher with hepatic cirrhosis who developed suppurative arthritis of the shoulder caused by Y enterocolitica is presented. There was no evidence of gastrointestinal infection or septicaemia.

[Pneumocystis carinii in male drug addicts: morphologic study of the parasite].

This work describes the first case of Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) to be found in Sardinia. The patient was an adult male drug-addict who died following a respiratory inadequacy due to bronchial pneumonia resulting from Pneumocystis carinii (PCP). For diagnostic purposes the emphasis is laid on the importance of morphological research into the parasite, considering the lack of specific evidence regarding serological investigation.