SUMMARY An enzyme-immunoassay was developed to measure the concentration of serum antibody specific for the secretary antigens released by migrating toxocaral larvae. This technique was evaluated by testing sera from healthy UK adults, and from patients with and without toxocariasis. In 922 healthy adults, 2-6 % were found to have elevated specific antibody levels. Elevated values were observed twice as frequently in males as in females but showed no significant regression with age between 20 and 65 years. Of 62 patients with non-toxocaral helminthic infections, all had antitoxocaral antibody levels within the range of values observed in healthy controls and had a mean level which was not significantly elevated. All of 13 patients with clinical toxocariasis had enzymelinked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) antibody levels above the 100th percentiles of both the healthy population and the helminth-infected group and had a significantly high mean value (P < 0.001) more than 12 times that of the healthy or infected controls.The high degree of sensitivity and specificity of the toxocariasis enzyme-immunoassay indicates that this new test should be useful in reference immunodiagnostic applications and in large-scale seroepidemiological surveys.
BtRnau contact, or by contaminated objects. According to Jellard (1957), the main reservoirs of this organism are (a) open lesions in the mothers, babies, or staff ; (b) adult skin and nasal carriers; and (c) the babies themselves, the umbilical cord being one of the principal sites. More than 80% of hospital-born infants are said to develop umbilical colonization by staphylococci at the fourth day (Fairchild, Graber, Vogel, and Ingersoll, 1958). In this respect the presence of the organism in the babies' stools has not been emphasized. Since staphylococci were cultured from the stools in nearly 50% of babies by the eighth day, the stools must be regarded as a potential reservoir of infection to which appropriate action must be directed during nursery outbreaks of staphylococcal sepsis.
SummaryRectal colonization by Staph. aureus occurred in 48 % of 92 normal newborn infants by the eighth day, and was not associated with any gastro-intestinal disturbance. The finding of Staph. aureus in stool cultures from infants with diarrhoea should be regarded as incidental, unless shown to be caused by an epidemic strain. However, the prevalence of this organism in the stools may be a significant reservoir of staphylococcal spread in nursery infections.
It has been confirmed that during the active phase of kala azar the erythrocyte life span is shortened. At this time patients' immunoconglutinin titres are raised, and their erythrocytes have been shown to be agglutinated by anticomplement and anti-non-y-globulin sera. Erythrocyte destruction in kala azar takes place largely in the spleen, as demonstrated by rising counts over the spleen relative to the praecordium and liver following labelling of the patients' erythrocytes with 51Cr. This point is supported by the absence of anaemia observed in a
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