Coverage survey and lessons learned from a pre-emptive cholera vaccination campaign in urban and rural communities affected by landslides and floods in Freetown Sierra Leone.

Background: On 14 August 2017, massive landslides and floods hit Freetown (Sierra Leone). More than 1,000 people lost their lives while approximately 6,000 people were displaced. The areas most affected included parts of the town with challenged access to basic water and sanitation facilities, with communal water sources likely contaminated by the disaster.

Changing sero-epidemiology of hepatitis A in Asia Pacific countries: A systematic review.

Objectives: Hepatitis A is a viral liver disease whose prevalence is associated with low socio-economic and hygiene levels due to its faecal-oral transmission. Severity increases with age, and immunity is life-long. Decreased endemicity could result in increased age and severity of cases.

An organizational analysis of road traffic crash prevention to explain the difficulties of a national program in a low income country.

Background: Road traffic crashes (RTC), that daily kill 3400 people and leave 15,000 with a permanent disability could be prevented through the implementation of safety programs developed in partnership with governments and institutions. The relationship between key stakeholders can be a crucial determinant to the effectiveness of road safety programs. This issue has rarely been addressed.

Evidence of High Out of Pocket Spending for HIV Care Leading to Catastrophic Expenditure for Affected Patients in Lao People's Democratic Republic.

Background: The scaling up of antiviral treatment (ART) coverage in the past decade has increased access to care for numerous people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in low-resource settings. Out-of-pocket payments (OOPs) represent a barrier for healthcare access, adherence and ART effectiveness, and can be economically catastrophic for PLWHA and their family. We evaluated OOPs of PLWHA attending outpatient and inpatient care units and estimated the financial burden for their households in the Lao People's Democratic Republic.

IgG1 as a potential biomarker of post-chemotherapeutic relapse in visceral leishmaniasis, and adaptation to a rapid diagnostic test.

Background: Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), caused by protozoa of the Leishmania donovani complex, is a widespread parasitic disease of great public health importance; without effective chemotherapy symptomatic VL is usually fatal. Distinction of asymptomatic carriage from progressive disease and the prediction of relapse following treatment are hampered by the lack of prognostic biomarkers for use at point of care.

Methodology/principal Findings: All IgG subclass and IgG isotype antibody levels were determined using unpaired serum samples from Indian and Sudanese patients with differing clinical status of VL, which included pre-treatment active VL, post-treatment cured, post-treatment relapsed, and post kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL), as well as seropositive (DAT and/or rK39) endemic healthy controls (EHCs) and seronegative EHCs.

Clinical value of measuring soluble interleukin-2 receptor in polymyalgia rheumatica.

Serum levels of soluble interleukin-2 receptor (sIL-2R) were measured in 15 patients with polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) and followed prospectively for 11.5 months (range 2-22) and also in 22 patients with PMR treated with corticosteroids for a mean period of 47 months. The controls consisted of 21 patients in the same age range as the PMR patients, admitted to the hospital for various diseases, and of 40 healthy younger subjects.

Antikeratin antibodies: diagnostic and prognostic markers for early rheumatoid arthritis.

Antibodies to the stratum corneum of rat oesophagus (antikeratin antibodies) were assayed by indirect immunofluorescence in a prospective study of patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA). At the beginning of the study, antikeratin antibodies of IgG class were detected in serum samples from 27/71 (38%) patients compared with 1/20 (5%) control patients with reactive arthritis, and 1/38 (3%) healthy blood donors. At the end of the two year follow up, 27/67 (40%) patients with RA were positive for antikeratin antibodies.

Outcome of systemic lupus erythematosus. A study of 66 patients over 7 years with special reference to the predictive value of anti-DNA antibody determinations.

A cohort of 66 patients with SLE that were thoroughly studied, both clinically and serologically in 1980-81, when they had a mean disease duration of eight years, were evaluated seven years later in order to assess the long-range outcome of the disease. Five patients were lost from follow-up and 12 (20%) died during the follow-up. The estimated 10-year survival was 91%.

Antibodies to Sm and SS-A demonstrated by enzyme immunoassay. Correlation to clinical manifestations and disease activity in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

Using commercially available antigens, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) were set up to demonstrate antibodies of IgG class against Sm and SS-A. Anti-Sm antibodies were demonstrated in 40% of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), in 12% of patients with SJögren's syndrome, in 6% of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and in 12% of patients with miscellaneous rheumatic disorders. Anti-SS-A antibodies were seen in 63% of the SLE patients, in 37% of the patients with Sjögren's syndrome and in 23% of the patients with RA.

A subset of systemic lupus erythematosus with progressive cystic bone lesions.

Clinical and serological findings of 16 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) who had progressive cystic bone lesions were compared with a control group of 19 patients with SLE without radiological evidence of bone cysts. Central nervous system manifestations, synovitis, and other radiologically observed skeletal abnormalities were more prevalent in the patients with cysts than in the control group. Higher concentrations of C reactive protein, and a greater incidence of rheumatoid factor positivity were seen in the patients with cysts than in the control patients, but no other serological differences were found.

Autoantibody activity of cryoglobulins and sera in systemic lupus erythematosus. Association of IgM class rheumatoid factors with Raynaud's syndrome.

A total of 218 samples obtained during a follow-up study of 36 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) were tested for the presence of cryoglobulins. Cold-insoluble precipitates were found in 81% for the patients (29 patients, 114 samples). The protein concentration of the cryoglobulins correlated significantly with the disease activity.

Screening test for rheumatic diseases: a combined enzyme immunoassay of rheumatoid factors and antibodies to DNA and extractable nuclear antigens.

Three hundred and one sera from patients with rheumatic and other diseases were investigated using a simple enzyme immunoassay for screening of rheumatoid factors and antinuclear antibodies. The assay had a sensitivity of 77% for systemic lupus erythematosus, 90% for the primary sicca syndrome, and 89% for rheumatoid arthritis. Only 13% of sera from patients with chronic non-rheumatic diseases were positive.

Yersinia arthritis, immune functions and histocompatibility antigens.

Secondary immune response to tetanus toxoid (TT), monocyte function, and generation of suppressor cells were studied in patients with previous yersinia arthritis (YA) and healthy controls. A comparison of HLA-B27 positive and negative subjects revealed that leukocytes from the former showed significantly higher responses to TT but not to a variety of other antigens in a lymphocyte proliferation test, and higher rates of migration in a leukocyte migration inhibition assay in the absence of TT. The enhanced migration of leukocytes supports the concept that hyper-reactive neutrophils contribute to inflammatory symptoms in HLA-B27 positive subjects, irrespective of previous YA.

Anti-DNA antibodies of IgA class in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

Sera obtained from 53 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) were investigated for the presence of immunoglobulin class-specific antibodies against native (ds)DNA and denatured (ss)DNA. The methods employed were the Crithidia luciliae test and an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), respectively. Anti-dsDNA antibodies of IgG class were seen in 42%, IgM-anti-dsDNA antibodies in 43%, and IgA-anti-dsDNA antibodies in 30% of the patients.

Profiles of antibodies to histones, DNA and IgG in patients with systemic rheumatic diseases determined by ELISA.

The occurrence of antibodies against the total histone complex and the histone fraction H1, antibodies against denatured (ss) DNA and the synthetic double stranded polynucleotide poly dAT, as well as rheumatoid factors (RF) was determined in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and Sjögren's syndrome (SS) using enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). Antihistone antibodies could be demonstrated at a frequency of about 17% in the patients with systemic rheumatic disease with no differences between the groups, even if there was a tendency for anti-H1 antibodies to occur more often in the SLE and SS patients than in the RA patients. Some of the antihistone antibody activity seen in the RA patients seems to be due to crossreactive RF.

Assessment of class-specific antibodies against denatured DNA in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

In this retrospective study 103 serum samples from 16 females with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), obtained during a mean follow-up time of 2 years, were investigated for the presence of anti-denatured [single-stranded (ss)] DNA antibodies of the IgG, IgM, and IgA classes. The anti-ssDNA antibodies were determined by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and the results were expressed in three ways: as units derived from a single serum dilution and as two parameters, E and A, calculated from the dose-response curve, E being an estimate of the effective amount of antibodies and A a function of the reaction constant between the antigen and the antibody. The simultaneous occurrence of anti-ssDNA antibodies of all three immunoglobulin classes was seen most often in the patients with the shortest duration of the disease.

Follow-up of antibodies against single-stranded DNA in patients with haematological malignancies.

Antibodies against single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) were followed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in weekly serum samples of 39 patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), 11 with acute lymphatic leukaemia (ALL) and 26 with other haematological malignancies. Their frequency and mean level during the entire follow-up were higher than in sera of healthy blood donors. Patients with AML had the highest levels and prevalence of anti-ssDNA antibodies, i.

Anti-DNA antibodies: the choice of assays for routine diagnostic work.

Sixty-six sera from 23 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), 26 sera from patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and 22 sera from normal healthy subjects were tested for the presence of antibodies against native (ds) DNA by the Crithidia luciliae immunofluorescence test and by the Farr assay, and for the presence of antibodies against denaturated (ss) DNA by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Anti-dsDNA antibodies were detected in 57% of the SLE patients by the Crithidia test and in 65% by the Farr assay. Two of the RA sera were positive in the Crithidia test, whereas all were Farr negative.

Demonstration of anti-keratin antibodies by ELISA using keratin or thiol-containing compounds in urea as antigens.

During the development of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the demonstration of anti-keratin antibodies (AKA) it was observed that rabbit anti-keratin antisera also reacted with polystyrene surfaces treated with beta-mercaptoethanol in 8 M urea (ME-urea). Sera from non-immunized rabbits or rabbits immunized with antigens unrelated to keratin failed to react. The specificity of the reaction was further assessed by absorption experiments and by testing affinity-purified AKA.

The usability of the MRL/1 mouse strain in detection of anti-rheumatic drugs.

D-Penicillamine (5 mg/kg), prednisolone (0.5 mg/kg), tolfenamic acid and thiabendazole (10 mg/kg) were chronically administered to male and female mice of MRL/1 strain. The treatment was started either at 4 weeks of age (prophylactic dosing) or at 12 weeks of age (therapeutic dosing) and continued until the termination at 24 weeks of age.