NIX is a 1% permethrin creme rinse used for the treatment of head lice. There are no studies regarding human exposure during pregnancy. The primary objective of this study was to examine the safety of permethrin exposure during pregnancy. The secondary objective was to examine how teratogen information is perceived and used by women who requested information regarding this product. Women who had called the Motherisk and MotherSafe Programs to inquire about exposure to permethrin during pregnancy were followed-up to ascertain the outcome of their pregnancies. These women were compared with another group who had not been exposed to any known teratogenic drugs. Women who decided not to use permethrin were administered an additional questionnaire. We enrolled 147 women and completed outcomes on 113 pregnancies of women who had used permethrin some time during their pregnancy. There were 106 live births, six spontaneous abortions, one therapeutic abortion, and one major malformation in the women who used permethrin in the first trimester. The mean birthweight was 3540 +/- 492 g and the mean gestational age was 40 +/- 1 weeks. There were no statistically significant differences between the exposed and comparison groups in any of the pregnancy outcomes. Of the 34 women who chose not to use permethrin and who completed the additional questionnaire, 18 (52%) did not use permethrin because they did not feel the information was sufficiently reassuring. The results of this study suggest that the use of permethrin products during pregnancy appears to be relatively safe because there was no increase in the rates of major malformations. We also found that some women will not use a product during pregnancy unless they can receive a 100% guarantee that it will not harm their baby.

Pernasal and throat swabs taken on 106 newborn babies showed that 99% harboured coagulase-positiveStaph. aureusby the time they left the hospital nursery. When the strains isolated from thirty-four of them were phage typed and tested for penicillin sensitivity, it was found that thirty-three (97%) carried at least one penicillin-resistant strain. Phage typing of their subsequent cultures, taken as they became older, demonstrated that they retained these strains for very long periods. Of the twenty-one still under observation at 6 months of age, eleven (53%) were carrying one or more of their original hospital strains, and an additional three (14%) still were consistently yielding an untypable strain believed to be identical to that acquired in hospital. Similarly, of those remaining under observation for the last 6 months of their first year, at least 50% continued to carry their hospital strains.These babies frequently retained the hospital strains in their throats longer than in their noses. Although their nasal cultures often became negative after the first few months of life, the original hospital strains continued to be recovered from the throats. This would indicate that the throat culture is more accurate than the nasal culture in determining staphylococcal carriers among this age group. Antibiotic-resistant staphylococci in the infant throat may have considerable epidemiological significance, since babies tend to widely distribute their saliva.The observations suggest that the staphylococci acquired at birth become a normal component of the upper respiratory flora, and may thus prevent new strains of staphylococci from becoming established later. This may explain why newborn babies retain the antibiotic-resistant staphylococci of the hospital much longer than do adult patients. Antibiotic-resistant strains among the general non-hospital population will be increased steadily by babies born in hospitals.

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SYNOPSIS IN INTERLINGUAPSEUDOMONADES IN SALIVA HUMAN.-Saliva ab 350 subjectos normal esseva cultivate quantitativemente con tres medios selective de Pseudomonas aeruginosa e altere pseudomonades. P. aeruginosa esseva trovate in 6,6 pro cento del subjectos, con numerationes de inter 10 e plus que 1000 germines per ml. de saliva. P. putida esseva presente in 1,7 pro cento del subjectos, con numerationes de inter 10 e 100 per ml. P.fluorescens esseva trovate in 0,6 pro cento del casos, con numerationes de minus que 10 per ml. Il pare que P. aeruginosa es un components residents del flora oral de certe subjectos, durante que le duo altere species es probabilemente species transient.