Healthcare workers' opinions on non-medical criteria for prioritisation of access to care during the pandemic.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic generated overflow of healthcare systems in several countries. As the ethical debates focused on prioritisation for access to care with scarce medical resources, numerous recommendations were created. Late 2021, the emergence of the Omicron variant whose transmissibility was identified but whose vaccine sensitivity was still unknown, reactivated debates.

[Trust in the care relationship].

A relationship of trust is an expression often used by caregivers, to such an extent that it almost seems self-evident. It is nevertheless important to give some thought to this aspect in order to construct a reliable, authentic and ethical care relationship. Indeed, trust is not automatic.

Discovery and Description of Ebola Zaire Virus in 1976 and Relevance to the West African Epidemic During 2013-2016.

Background: In 1976, the first cases of Ebola virus disease in northern Democratic Republic of the Congo (then referred to as Zaire) were reported. This article addresses who was responsible for recognizing the disease; recovering, identifying, and naming the virus; and describing the epidemic. Key scientific approaches used in 1976 and their relevance to the 3-country (Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia) West African epidemic during 2013-2016 are presented.

Short report: isolation and partial characterization of a Puumala virus from a human case of nephropathia epidemica in France.

Puumala (PUU) virus (Bunyaviridae: Hantavirus), the etiologic agent of nephropathia epidemica (NE), the mid form of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, is enzootic in Europe and has been known to occur in France since 1983. We report the first isolation of PUU virus in France and western Europe from a case of NE acquired in France. The virus was isolated from a serum collected in the acute phase of the clinical course by successive blind passages in Vero E6 cells.

[Post-exposure antirabies vaccination. Early serological response to vaccine cultivated on VERO cells using a reduced 2-1-1 schedule].

Objectives: An abbreviated 2-1-1 schedule for post-exposure rabies vaccination would theoretically lead to more rapid production of specific antibodies than the classical schedule. We measured early serological response to the 2-1-1 schedule.

Methods: Patients consulting the antirabies centre of the Epinal hospital from June 1992 to June 1993 who had never been vaccinated and whose exposure history justified antirabies vaccination were included in this study.

Safety and immunogenicity of combined rabies and typhoid fever immunization.

The prevalence of rabies and typhoid fever in many developing countries poses a serious health hazard to travellers. The development of a combined immunization schedule would be advantageous. A study was performed on 104 adult volunteers using purified Vero cell rabies vaccine and Typhim Vi, a purified capsular polysaccharide, either separately or in combination.

Contribution to rabies prevention.

After the end of the Second World War, an outbreak of fox rabies invaded Europe. For the immunization of human populations and domestic animals against the risk of rabies transmitted by infected wild animals, it appeared necessary to replace the first generation of rabies vaccines (nerve tissue vaccines) by more potent and safer vaccines. The European vaccine manufacturers, in close collaboration with the research institutes engaged in rabies research, soon and quickly developed a second generation of rabies vaccines, produced in cell cultures including continuous cell lines grown in bioreactors of industrial scale.

[Rabies encephalomyelitis with myocarditis and pancreatitis. Report on a case recently imported into France].

We report the case of a 29 year-old man who died from rabies in France, following a dog-bite during a trip in Mexico. Although it was clinically suspected, the diagnosis was uncertain until he died because of digestive, cardiac and psychiatric misleading symptoms associated to the neurologic disorders. Post mortem diagnosis was based upon virological study in immunofluorescence on cerebral smears, viral isolation on cell-culture, and ELISA.

Rabies-specific production of interleukin-2 by peripheral blood lymphocytes from human rabies vaccinees.

Cell-mediated immunity induced by rabies vaccination was studied in humans by the determination of specific interleukin-2 (IL-2) production in a large number of donors (postexposure immunized patients and pre-exposure immunized laboratory workers). Peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) from 35 donors were tested for IL-2 production after in vitro stimulation by different rabies and rabies-related viruses. IL-2 responses were compared to antibody recognition of these different virus serotypes by sera from the same individuals.

Appraisal of rabies vaccine potency by determination of in vitro, specific interleukin-2 production.

The potency of different rabies vaccines was measured via cell mediated immunity (CMI) assessed by the production of interleukin-2 (IL-2) by CD4+CD8- lymphocytes. IL-2 production by splenocytes from mice immunized with various vaccines was measured following in vitro stimulation with antigens from different rabies and rabies-related strains. IL-2 production was specific, reproducible and correlated with the vaccine protective activity as determined by the pre-exposure NIH test.

In vitro rabies vaccine potency appraisal by ELISA: advantages of the immunocapture method with a neutralizing anti-glycoprotein monoclonal antibody.

The replacement of the in vivo potency test (NIH test) for rabies vaccine evaluation by in vitro methods is at present discussed in many reports and also by WHO expert working groups. For this purpose, in vitro glycoprotein titration has been proposed. Among the different glycoprotein assays, we have studied two ELISA methods (immunocapture and direct plate coating with the antigen to be tested) using neutralizing mono- and polyclonal antibodies.

Enhancement of interleukin-2 activity by liposomes.

The present report demonstrates that liposomes increase the interleukin-2 (IL-2) dependent proliferation of cytotoxic T-lymphocyte line (CTLL) cells used for the measurement of IL-2 activity. This effect was better observed with suboptimal doses of IL-2 and low concentrations of lipids. The increased IL-2 dependent proliferation is not due to a direct effect of liposomes on CTLL cells but rather to an interaction between IL-2 and liposomes.

From rabies to rabies-related viruses.

Antigenic differences between rabies virus strains characterized with monoclonal antibodies presently define at least four serotypes within the Lyssavirus genus of the Rhabdoviridae family: classical rabies virus strains (serotype 1), Lagos bat virus (serotype 2), Mokola virus (serotype 3) and Duvenhage virus (serotype 4). The wide distribution of rabies-related virus strains (serotypes 2, 3 and 4) and above all, the weak protection conferred by rabies vaccines against some of them (principally Mokola virus) necessitates the development of new specific vaccines. We first determined the complete nucleotide sequence of a rabies virus strain of serotype 1 (Pasteur virus) and characterized the structure of the viral genes and their regulatory sequences.

Recent data on the epidemiology and prophylaxis of human rabies in France.

Rabies is an animal disease which is transmitted to man only by accident, most often through the bite (more rarely after scratches or licks of mucosa) of a rabid animal, domestic or wild. A good knowledge of the epizootiology of animal rabies is therefore necessary to establish, on solid grounds, the prophylaxis of human rabies. Inter-human transmission of rabies being an exceptional event which will be considered separately, the epidemiology of human rabies mainly studies the sources and circumstances of human exposure to rabid animals, which differ according to the epizootiology of animal rabies in a given country: either enzootic (or hyperenzootic) canine rabies, or enzootic selvatic rabies.

[Antigenic variants of rabies virus isolated in the northeast and southeast of Brazil. Preliminary study].

To help identify the different strains of rabies virus existing in Brazil, the antigenic profile of 13 virus isolates from humans and animals was determined. The indirect immunofluorescence technique was used, with monoclonal antibodies targeted at the viral nucleocapsid. In the northeast of the country five different viral strains were identified, and in the southeast, two.

[The efficacy of the ERA rabies vaccine, in mice against 4 antigenic variants of rabies virus].

ERA anti-rabies vaccine prepared in kidney tissue culture was evaluated against four different antigenic strains of rabies virus in mice: two of them dog strains, C/SP and C/NG, another a bat vampire strain, DR-19, and the CVS strain. The CVS antigenic characteristics were determined by means the antinucleocapsid monoclonal antibodies technique. Twenty one days old mice were vaccinated, intramuscularly, in the inner side of the thigh, with 0.

The use of immunosome technology for vaccines against rabies and other viral diseases.

Subunit viral vaccines present several advantages. They are free of nucleic acids (of viral and/or cellular origin) and proteins of cellular and/or serum origin; they contain only the relevant antigen. For rabies virus, the antigen which induces the virus-neutralizing antibody (VNAb) is the glycoprotein (GP), which is anchored, in form of spikes, to the viral membrane.