The All Wales Medicines Strategy Group: 18 years' experience of a national medicines optimisation committee.

Aims: To review the medicines optimisation activities of the All Wales Medicines Strategy Group (AWMSG), a committee established in 2002 to advise the Welsh Government on "all matters related to prescribing". Although AWMSG conducts other activities (e.g.

Outcome of West Nile fever in older adults.

Objectives: To determine the effect of clinical presentation and cognitive changes on the postdischarge outcome in older adult patients with West Nile fever (WNF).

Design: Retrospective, cohort analysis.

Setting: Meir Hospital located in the center of Israel in the Sharon region.

Listeria monocytogenes infection in Israel and review of cases worldwide.

Listeria monocytogenes, an uncommon foodborne pathogen, is increasingly recognized as a cause of life-threatening disease. A marked increase in reported cases of listeriosis during 1998 motivated a retrospective nationwide survey of the infection in Israel. From 1995 to 1999, 161 cases were identified; 70 (43%) were perinatal infections, with a fetal mortality rate of 45%.

Antibiotic treatment in acute otitis media: 'in vivo' demonstration of antibacterial activity.

The ultimate goal in antibiotic treatment of acute otitis media (AOM) is eradication of the pathogens from the middle ear fluid (MEF). To test the ability of an antibiotic to achieve this goal, the best available method is to obtain MEF by aspiration before initiating antibiotics and to repeat this procedure during treatment, a method which was termed the 'in vivo sensitivity test'. This advantageous method is difficult to perform and thus only a few groups were able to conduct such large-scale studies.