Reduced susceptibility to penicillin among pneumococci causing invasive infection in children - Canada, 1991 to 1998.

Objective: To determine, over time, the rate and serotypes of pneumococci with reduced penicillin susceptibility obtained from children with invasive infection.

Design: Active, hospital-based, multicentre surveillance spanning from 1991 to 1998.

Setting: Eleven Canadian tertiary care paediatric facilities located from coast to coast.

An outbreak of cyclosporiasis in 1996 associated with consumption of fresh berries- Ontario.

Background: A large foodborne outbreak of cyclosporiasis occurred in North America in 1996. An index cluster of cases associated with a catered event on May 11, 1996, in Ontario sparked the recognition of this outbreak in Canada.

Objectives: To describe the Ontario experience with the North American outbreak of cyclosporiasis in 1996.

Quality assurance programme for drug susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the WHO/IUATLD Supranational Reference Laboratory Network: five rounds of proficiency testing, 1994-1998.

Setting: Quality assurance for the WHO/IUATLD Global Tuberculosis Drug Resistance Surveillance Programme.

Objective: To implement an ongoing proficiency-testing programme for drug susceptibility testing (DST) of Mycobacterium tuberculosis within the WHO/IUATLD Supranational Reference Laboratories Network (SRLN).

Design: Five culture panels, each consisting of 10 duplicate drug-susceptible and drug-resistant clinical isolates (100 strains) of M.

Brain cancer and occupational exposure to magnetic fields among men: results from a Canadian population-based case-control study.

Background: The relationship between occupational exposure to magnetic fields and brain cancer in men was investigated using population-based case-control data collected in eight Canadian provinces. Emphasis was placed on examining the variations in risk across different histological types.

Methods: A list of occupations was compiled for 543 cases and 543 controls that were individually matched by age.

Socioeconomic status and lung cancer risk in Canada.

Background: Several epidemiological studies have found that lung cancer is inversely related to socioeconomic status (SES) and suggest it as a possible risk factor for lung cancer. This study examines SES and lung cancer risk in Canada.

Methods: Mailed questionnaires with telephone follow-up were used to obtain data on 3280 newly diagnosed, histologically confirmed lung cancer cases and 5073 population controls, between 1994 and 1997, in eight Canadian provinces.

Pertussis is a frequent cause of prolonged cough illness in adults and adolescents.

Although pertussis is increasingly recognized as a cause of prolonged cough illness in adolescents and adults, its prevalence is not well established. We evaluated pertussis infection in 442 adolescents and adults > or = 12 years old (mean age, 41.3 years) who had a cough-related illness of 7--56 days' duration.

Parental cigarette smoking, hard liquor consumption and the risk of childhood brain tumors--a case-control study in northeast China.

In this study we examine the effect of parents' lifestyles on the risk of childhood brain tumors. Parents of 82 children newly diagnosed with primary malignant brain tumors and 246 individually matched hospital controls were interviewed in the hospital wards between September 1991 and December 1996. Data were collected on socioeconomic status, parental lifestyle prior to and during the pregnancy, and family history.

Maternal asthma and pregnancy outcomes: a retrospective cohort study.

Objective: We examined the relationship between asthma during pregnancy and selected infant and maternal outcomes.

Study Design: A retrospective cohort study was conducted on mother-infant dyads identified from a linked infant and maternal hospital discharge database in the Canadian province of Quebec between fiscal years 1991-1992 and 1995-1996. Mothers with asthma (n = 2193) were compared with a randomly selected control sample (n = 8772) from the remaining population of mothers.

Implausible birth weight for gestational age.

Various rules have been proposed to identify and exclude live births with implausible values of birth weight for gestational age from large perinatal data sets. The authors carried out a preliminary evaluation of common rules by examining the frequency and nature of rule-based exclusions among live births in Canada (excluding Ontario) between 1992 and 1994. There were 625 (0.

Prevalence of GBV-C/hepatitis G virus viremia and anti-E2 in Canadian blood donors.

Background And Objectives: GB virus C (GBV-C)/hepatitis G virus (HGV) is a recently recognized parenterally and sexually transmitted agent. The prevalence of GBV-C/HGV markers in Canadian blood donors has not been previously studied and was therefore determined.

Materials And Methods: Blood donors [identity unlinked (IU), short-term temporarily deferred (STTD) and autologous groups] and donor samples with antibodies to hepatitis C (anti-HCV) or hepatitis B core were tested for GBV-C/HGV RNA and for antibodies to E2 antigen (anti-E2).

Physician asthma management practices in Canada.

Objectives: To establish national baseline information on asthma management practices of physicians, to compare the reported practices with the Canadian Consensus recommendations and to identify results potentially useful for interventions that improve physician asthma management practices.

Design: National, stratified cross-sectional survey.

Settings: The 10 provinces and two territories of Canada, from 1996 to 1997.

Gestational age- and birthweight-specific declines in infant mortality in Canada, 1985-94. Fetal and Infant Health Study Group of the Canadian Perinatal Surveillance System.

We studied infant mortality rates in Canada within specific gestational age and birthweight categories after using probabilistic techniques to link information in Statistics Canada's live births data base (1985-94) with that in the death data base (1985-95). Gestational age- and birthweight-specific mortality rates in 1992-94 were contrasted with those in 1985-87 with changes expressed in terms of relative risks with 95% confidence intervals [CI]. Statistically significant reductions in infant mortality were observed beginning at 24-25 weeks of gestation and extended across the gestational age range to post-term births.

Performance of screening mammography in organized programs in Canada in 1996. The Database Management Subcommittee to the National Committee for the Canadian Breast Cancer Screening Initiative.

Background: The results of randomized trials show that breast cancer screening by mammography reduces breast cancer mortality by up to 40% in women aged 50-69 years. Because of these results, by 1998, 22 countries, including Canada, had established population-based organized screening programs. This paper presents the results of screening mammography in 1996 for 7 provincially organized breast cancer screening programs in Canada.

Clues to the aetiological heterogeneity of testicular seminomas and non-seminomas: time trends and age-period-cohort effects.

Background: Most previous epidemiological studies have treated testicular cancer as a single entity. However, some investigators suggest that testicular seminomas and non-seminomas may have different risk profiles. We examine the time trends in incidence of the two main histological types separately.

Prediction of hepatitis C burden in Canada.

To assess the risk of hepatitis C in Canada and to predict the burden that this disease may pose to the Canadian society in the near future, expected numbers of persons at different stages of the disease currently and in the next decade were estimated by simulation using a published hepatitis C natural history model with no treatment effect being applied. Based on the estimate of 240,000 persons who are currently infected with the hepatitis C virus in Canada, the simulation analysis demonstrated that the number of hepatitis C cirrhosis cases would likely increase by 92% from 1998 to the year 2008. It was also projected that the number of liver failures and hepatocellular carcinomas related to hepatitis C would increase by 126% and 102%, respectively, in the next decade.

Antiretroviral therapy and declining AIDS mortality in New York City.

The objective was to evaluate the association between antiretroviral therapy and AIDS mortality in New York City (NYC). Design was a population-based case-control study. We randomly selected 150 case patients and 150 control patients whose AIDS diagnosis was made during 1994 to 1996 (male:female, 2:1) from among 19,238 persons reported to the NYC Health Department HIV/AIDS Reporting System (HARS).