Dietary acculturation and increasing rates of obesity in Ethiopian women living in Israel.

Objective: Immigration from Third World countries to the developed world is characterized by modification of lifestyle and acculturation to local customs. This study investigated changes in nutritional status and eating behaviors in female Ethiopian immigrants in Israel.

Methods: Personal interviews, two 24-h dietary recalls, and anthropometric measurements were carried out in a random sample of 53 women 32 ± 6 y of age.

Suspected radioactive contamination: evaluation of 45 Israeli citizens potentially exposed to polonium-210 in London.

The lethal poisoning of Alexander Litvinenco with the radioactive element polonium-210, and the risk that many civilians (including Israeli citizens) who were in the same location in London at the same time were exposed to radiation, was an unprecedented event in the western world. This was only the second known death due to 210Po, a natural alpha radiation-emitting element. A task team was created to handle the event.

Evaluation of a syndromic surveillance system using the WSARE algorithm for early detection of an unusual, localized summer outbreak of influenza B: implications for bioterrorism surveillance.

Background: Syndromic surveillance systems have been developed for early detection of bioterrorist attacks, but few validation studies exist for these systems and their efficacy has been questioned.

Objectives: To assess the capabilities of a syndromic surveillance system based on community clinics in conjunction with the WSARE algorithm in identifying early signals of a localized unusual influenza outbreak.

Methods: This retrospective study used data on a documented influenza B outbreak in an elementary school in central Israel.

A large food-borne outbreak of group A streptococcal pharyngitis in an industrial plant: potential for deliberate contamination.

Contamination of food with streptococci could present with unusual outbreaks that may be difficult to recognize in the early stages. This is demonstrated in a large food-borne outbreak of streptococcal pharyngitis that occurred in 2003 in a factory in Israel. The outbreak was reported to the public health services on July 2 and an epidemiologic investigation was initiated.

Adverse reactions to accidental forearm injection of Bacille Calmette-Guerin vaccine in schoolchildren: 12-month cohort follow-up.

This study examined the natural history of reaction after accidental intradermal administration of bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine instead of purified protein derivative (PPD) in 226 schoolchildren. At 18 days after vaccination, a local reaction with a diameter of 4.5-14 mm was found in 62% of the students, and ulceration with discharge was found in 26.