Background:In 2011, an outbreak of measles in Minnesota was traced back to an unvaccinated Somali child. The purpose of this project was to (1) ascertain whether Somali parents are more likely than non-Somalis to refuse childhood vaccinations, particularly the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine and (2) determine what factors influence the decision not to vaccinate.Methods: We explored parental perceptions and utilization of vaccines through a survey distributed to a convenience sample of Somali and non-Somali parents of children <5 years old in a family medicine clinic in Minneapolis, MN.Results: A total of 99 surveys were completed, 28% (n ؍ 27) by Somali parents. Somali parents were more likely than non-Somali parents to have refused the MMR vaccine for their child (odds ratio, 4.6; 95% confidence interval, 1.2-18.0). Most of them refused vaccines because they had heard of adverse effects associated with the vaccine or personally knew someone who suffered an adverse effect. Somali parents were significantly more likely to believe that autism is caused by vaccines (35% vs. 8% of nonSomali parents). Somalis were also more likely to be uncomfortable with administering multiple vaccines at one visit (odds ratio, 4.0; 95% confidence interval, 1.4 -11.9) and more likely to believe that children receive too many vaccines.
Evaluation of faculty perceptions of the effectiveness of EBP courses can help to guide the development of nursing school curricula that better integrate EBP. Further evaluation of the psychometric properties of the instrument used to measure perception of the effectiveness of EBP courses is required along with objective measures of faculty knowledge and skills in teaching EBP.
During incubation of
Treponema pallidum
(Nichols strain) with cultured mammlian cells derived from normal rabbit testes (NRT), an amorphous material accumulated at the surface of the cultured cells. This material was randomly distributed on all tissue cells within the culture chambers. The amount of amorphous material was dependent on the treponemal inocula. With 3 × 10
8
organisms per ml, this material was readily apparent within 2 days; with 4 × 10
7
organisms per ml, this material was detectable within 4 to 5 days; with lower inocula, the accumulation of amorphous material was far less apparent. Deposition of this surface-associated material required attachment of treponemes to the cultured cells, and the amount deposited was related to the number of treponemes attached per cell. This amorphous material was not detected when NRT cells were incubated with preparations of
T. pallidum
that were heat or air inactivated. In addition, the accumulaton of amorphous material was not due to a soluble component from host testicular tissue or to a soluble component developing during treponemal infection. This was demonstrated by the inability of membrane filtered preparations of
T. pallidum
to induce the deposition of amorphous material at the surface of the cultured cells. The nature of this material appeared to be acidic mucopolysaccharide as indicated by its metachromatic staining properties, its stainability with ruthenium red, and its partial degradation by bovine and streptomyces hyaluronidase. This amorphous material that accumulated in vitro at the surface of cultured cells may be similar to the mucoid material that accumulates in vivo during syphilitic infection.
SUMMARY Certain reducing agents containing sulfhydryl groups are important to the in-vitro survival of Treponema pallidum. Discrepancies occur, however, concerning the agents and the concentrations that are optimal. To clarify some of this confusion, sulfhydryl oxidation was determined using procedures and experimental conditions commonly used for Tpallidum. Sulfhydryl oxidation varied according to the type of culture medium, the size of the culture vessels, the volume of the culture medium, and the gaseous environment within the culture vessels, as well as the method of extracting treponemes from infected testicular tissue. Dithiothreitol maintained highly reduced conditions by reducing disulfide groups to sulfhydryl groups. Lastly, the organisms influenced the sulfhydryl concentration by either direct oxidation or specific uptake. The sulfhydryl content was sharply decreased in the presence of viable preparations of T pallidum compared with heated preparations or membrane filtrates of viable preparations.
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