Impact and Effectiveness of State-Level Tuberculosis Interventions in California, Florida, New York, and Texas: A Model-Based Analysis.

The incidence of tuberculosis (TB) in the United States has stabilized, and additional interventions are needed to make progress toward TB elimination. However, the impact of such interventions depends on local demography and the heterogeneity of populations at risk. Using state-level individual-based TB transmission models calibrated to California, Florida, New York, and Texas, we modeled 2 TB interventions: 1) increased targeted testing and treatment (TTT) of high-risk populations, including people who are non-US-born, diabetic, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive, homeless, or incarcerated; and 2) enhanced contact investigation (ECI) for contacts of TB patients, including higher completion of preventive therapy.

The merits of varicella vaccination for varicella non-immune health care workers.

Immunity against varicella can be reliably established by history and, if negative, confirmed or refuted by serology. If non-immune, the merits of varicella vaccine for a health care worker (HCW) can be stated clearly: Protection from a disease which may be particularly severe in an adult, and evading the inconvenience (investigation time and possible work restriction) and cost of managing an exposure. This paper discusses implementation of a varicella immunity program for HCWs at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in Oklahoma City.

Tuberculosis in health care workers at a hospital with an outbreak of multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Objective: Investigate reports of tuberculosis in health care workers employed at a hospital with an outbreak of multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Design: Case series of tuberculosis in health care workers, January 1, 1989, through May 31, 1992. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing and restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of M tuberculosis isolates.

Does leukotriene C4 mediate hypoxic vasoconstriction in isolated ferret lungs?

To evaluate leukotriene (LT) C4 as a mediator of hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction, we examined the effects of FPL55712, a putative LT antagonist, and indomethacin, a cyclooxygenase inhibitor, on vasopressor responses to LTC4 and hypoxia (inspired O2 tension = 25 Torr) in isolated ferret lungs perfused with a constant flow (50 ml.kg-1.min-1).