Mother-to-child transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in Ireland: a prospective study.

Symptomatic HIV infection was first diagnosed in an Irish child in 1985. A prospective study was initiated to determine the vertical transmission rate (VTR) of HIV and the average age of infant seroreversion and to monitor clinical, immunologic and virologic evidence for HIV infection in seroreverters. Ninety three HIV positive infants have been prospectively identified since 1985.

An outbreak of hepatitis A among Irish haemophiliacs.

Background: An outbreak of hepatitis A (HAV) occurred in 1992 in Irish haemophilia A patients treated with high purity solvent-detergent (SD) treated factor VIII. Similar outbreaks were reported in Italy, Germany and Belgium. The aim of this study was to investigate the outbreak, and to test the hypothesis that it was caused by exposure to SD-treated factor VIII.

MMR vaccination, measles epidemiology and sero-surveillance in the Republic of Ireland.

Objective: Following the introduction of a national measles and subsequent MMR vaccination programme, to determine the susceptibility of 3-14-year-old children to measles, mumps and rubella and to relate the results to the epidemiology of measles and the need for vaccination policy changes.

Design: Cross-sectional sero-survey and trends in measles notifications and mortality.

Setting: Paediatric hospital outpatient departments in Dublin.

Avoiding false positive HIV results on life assurance proposers: the necessity for follow-up.

The serological reaction to HIV infection is almost invariably a dynamic progression towards strong reactivity to a wide range of viral antigens. Serological diagnosis should therefore be based either on the presence of this wide range in a single specimen or on the demonstration of increasing activity between two specimens collected at an interval of two or more weeks and tested in parallel. When a specimen is reactive a second should in any case be collected to check the identity of the first.

Epidemiology of respiratory syncytial virus infection among infants over three winter seasons.

A study involving respiratory syncytial virus was carried out on infants and young children hospitalised with acute respiratory tract infection over the period December 1987 to March 1990. During peak periods of RS virus activity 420 naso-pharyngeal aspirates were submitted to the Virus Reference Laboratory, Department of Medical Microbiology, U.C.

Changes in incidence of hepatitis B in Ireland from 1970-1987.

This paper analyses data on 2,226 cases of Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection detected during the years 1970 to 1987. Of those where information on risk-group was available (1,301), infection among intravenous drug-abusers accounted for the largest proportion (49%). Most became infected during and since an outbreak of hepatitis B and Delta hepatitis which originated in this group in 1980.

Improved method for isolation and growth of Chlamydia trachomatis in McCoy cells treated with cycloheximide using polyethylene glycol.

The sensitivity of non-replicating McCoy cells pretreated with polyethylene glycol for the isolation of Chlamydia trachomatis from clinical specimens and for the growth of a laboratory strain was compared with the sensitivity of untreated non-replicating cell cultures. The concentration of polyethylene glycol in different solutions and the time of addition to the cell culture medium were critical. A concentration of 35% polyethylene glycol in barbitone added to the cell culture growth medium either immediately before or immediately after infection with chlamydia increased the number of inclusions detected.

Quantitative and qualitative detection of cytomegalovirus-specific antibodies using two types of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

An indirect ELISA and an inhibition ELISA were developed for the detection of cytomegalovirus (CMV)-specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) and CMV-specific total immunoglobulin, respectively. Both assays were more specific than the complement fixation (CF) test, and titres of positive sera were 660 times higher by IgG ELISA and 6 times higher by inhibition ELISA than titres by the CF test. Titres by IgG ELISA were reliably determined using the absorbance obtained at a single serum dilution of 1/1,000 in conjunction with a standard graph.

Maternal serum folate and vitamin B12 concentrations in pregnancies associated with neural tube defects.

Serum folate and vitamin B12 concentrations in early pregnancy were compared for 32 mothers with pregnancies affected by neural tube defects and 395 randomly selected pregnant control women from the same maternity hospitals. No significant differences were found between the affected mothers and the controls in the median values and frequency distributions of either vitamin. Sixteen of the samples from mothers whose infants had neural tube defects were taken between 9 and 13 weeks' gestation and 11 of these had both serum folate and vitamin B12 concentrations within the normal ranges for our laboratory.

Increased severity and morbidity of acute hepatitis in drug abusers with simultaneously acquired hepatitis B and hepatitis D virus infections.

Hepatitis D virus (delta agent) markers were present in 111 (36%) of 308 intravenous drug abusers who were positive for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), 52 of these having hepatitis D virus antigenaemia. IgM antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc IgM) was present in 92 out of 95 subjects tested, indicating that hepatitis D virus and hepatitis B virus infections had been acquired simultaneously. Hepatitis D virus markers were present in three out of four patients with fulminant hepatitis, and in 80 of 223 (36%) with mild or moderate hepatitis compared with four of 29 (14%) of those who were asymptomatic.

Persistence of rubella antibodies 15 years after subcutaneous administration of Wistar 27/3 strain live attenuated rubella virus vaccine.

The rubella-specific antibody levels of children vaccinated with RA 27/3 rubella vaccine have been determined over the 15 years since vaccination. Over the period monitored, titres have declined at a comparable rate to those observed in children who had experienced natural rubella infection. In both cohorts the mean rate of decay was similar throughout the 15 years of the study.

Detection of Chlamydia trachomatis inclusions in McCoy and HeLa-229 cells: an alternative staining technique using toluidine blue.

Toluidine blue staining was used to detect Chlamydia trachomatis inclusions in both McCoy and HeLa-229 cells from clinical specimens. This method was more sensitive than iodine staining for detecting C trachomatis inclusions in both McCoy and HeLa-229 cells and also more sensitive than Giemsa staining for detecting chlamydial inclusions in HeLa-229 cells. While its sensitivity for detection of chlamydial inclusions in McCoy cells is equal to that of Giemsa staining, toluidine blue staining is easier and faster to perform.