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Biomedical subjects

A Rouillon

Publications and source records attributed to A Rouillon.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

The Mutual Assistance Programme of the IUATLD. Development, contribution and significance.

The Mutual Assistance Programme of the IUATLD is aimed at trying to compensate for the neglect into which tuberculosis had fallen from the part of governments, teaching institutions and international agencies, and represents an innovative approach to promote solidarity between governments and voluntary organizations of low tuberculosis prevalence countries and those of high prevalence countries. The main objective has been to develop a system of delivery of treatment and diagnosis of tuberculosis that would be efficacious even under the difficult conditions of high prevalence of tuberculosis, low resources and/or socio-political disturbances. The system turned out not only to be efficacious in terms of cure rates and epidemiological impact but also to be efficient in terms of cost/benefit. The National Tuberculosis Programme's approach includes the application of short-course chemotherapy, the regular provision of drugs and products, a system of registers, forms and periodic reports, the assessment of the yield of case-finding and, most important of all, the analysis of the therapeutic results in successive cohorts of patients. Cure rates repeatedly reach around 85% in new cases and approximately 80% in retreatment cases, nationwide, in the countries where such programmes have been successively implemented. Each national programme has an important role of training and of capacity building. While serving the populations, the national programmes also provide the framework for relatively inexpensive operational research and, finally, the careful collection of data represents a basis--unique of its kind in the world--for the study of the clinical and epidemiological relationships between tuberculosis and HIV. The method has been endorsed by the WHO and has the support of the World Bank, the United Nations Development Plan and the main government Agencies for Development Cooperation. It is part of the new Global Strategy against Tuberculosis which is presently being developed under the WHO TB Unit. The other aspects of Mutual Assistance concern courses, consultation to programmes not directly sponsored by the IUATLD and publications.

Charities↗
PubMed1989

Cloning of cDNAs encoding a rat neuropeptide immunologically related to salmon melanin-concentrating hormone.

In order to identify the neuropeptide related to melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) synthetized by neurons of the posterior hypothalamus in the mammals, we have screened rat hypothalamus and rat brain cDNA expression libraries using MCH antiserum. We isolated 5 distinct immunopositive recombinants with cross-hybridizing cDNA inserts. One of them hybridized to RNAs exclusively located in neurons stained by the same antiserum, as seen by successively performing in situ hybridization and then an immunocytochemical technique on the same section. Sequencing of this MCH-like cDNA is in progress.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

[Cloning of the cDNA, while encoding a hypothalamic neuropeptide in the rat, related to the melanin-concentrating hormone in the salmon].

In order to identify the neuropeptide related to salmon melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) synthetized by neurons of the posterior hypothalamus in the mammals, we have screened rat hypothalamus and rat brain cDNA expression libraries using MCH antiserum. Five recombinants were isolated, which cDNAs were amplified using the polymerase chain reaction. One of them hybridized to RNAs exclusively located in hypothalamic neurons stained by the same antiserum, as seen by performing in situ hybridization and immunocytochemical techniques on the same section. The sequence analysis showed that this cDNA corresponds to the end of the open reading frame encoding a MCH-like peptide and to the 3' untranslated region. The rat MCH is very similar to salmon MCH (greater than 85% homologies in the 14C-terminal residues).

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1976

Transmission of tubercle bacilli: The effects of chemotherapy.

The important differences in the infectivity of the various forms of tuberculosis can be explained by quantitative data concerning the behaviour of the tubercle bacillus in man and the number of bacilli in the lesions and sputum. Patients in whom tubercle bacilli can be detected by direct examination of the sputum smear are the main sources of transmission. Moreover the individuals infected by them break down more often with the disease. In the individual patient, the use of antibacterial drugs completely changes the natural history of the disease: not only do patients no longer die but they are cured; their period of infectivity is considerably reduced, relapses are avoided, chronicity disappears. The drugs used prophylactically in individuals of high risk groups prevent development of the disease. The impact of chemotherapy is reflected by a two-to-three-fold increase in the speed of decline of the risk of infection, a decline which had started before the introduction of the drugs. While patients given the right combination of drugs lose their infectivity in a few weeks (probably most often in less than two weeks), treatment must of course be continued much longer and regularly in order to ensure the maintenance of conversion and the absence of relapse. This stresses the importance of providing means to ensure the taking of the drugs by all patients. The future reduction of transmission will essentially depend on the maintenance of an adequate system ensuring the early diagnosis and correct treatment of cases, which will inevitably continue to appear among the already infected portion of the population. Epidemiological surveillance is mandatory as well as the surveillance of the delivery of services, particularly of the quality of diagnosis and therapeutic services. The roles of public health authorities and perhaps still more that of the practising physician, specialized and not specialized, remain considerable both from an epidemiological point of view and from the point of view of the relief of all the suffering still created by the disease.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1976

BCG vaccination and epidemiological situation: a decision making approach to the use of BCG.

The clinical efficacy of a well-controlled and correctly applied BCG vaccine can hardly be questioned, nor its usefulness under individual circumstances. But a problem more and more often raised now is that of the opportuneness, at the present time, to still use BCG on a mass- systematic - scale, particularly in the TB control programmes of low-prevalence countries. The article proposes an approach which, alongside with other methods already presented for assessing the epidemiological value of BCG and its public health indications, can help appreciate the advantages and disadvantages brought by vaccination in high- as well as in low-prevalence countries. The article focuses on the future, i.e. on what can, from now on, be expected from BCG in terms of epidemiological, economical and psychological benefits. Test runs were made considering three cohorts of 100,000 individuals (newborn, school enterers, school leavers), vaccinated or not vaccinated, submitted to various risks of infection (corresponding to conditions of high-, intermediate- and low-prevalence of tuberculosis) and experiencing various breakdown rates from infection to disease. Cost for BCG on the one hand, and cost for diagnosis, treatment of tuberculosis and loss of wages on the other, were also entered in the calculations; an attempt was also made to quantify in absolute terms and in relative ones the in conveniences linked to the application of BCG itself. Beyond figures and results presented as examples, what is more important is that the article furnished a method of reasoning and the possibility to feed one's own data in the model; it may help to encompass the scope and implications of a decision, and it furnishes elements of dialogue with other members of the planning team. It should be well realized that the elements provided and those which can be worked out are elements of reflexion to found a decision; the decision itself - to start, to pursue or to stop BCG on a mass scale - is of political nature (public health policy): it always implies a value judgement - from the part of the providers of the services and/or, preferably, from the part of the users, i.e. a preference which is the result of a 'weighing' between advantages and inevitable disadvantages, both involving time, place, existing system, existing beliefs and other fields of health and welfare.

Adolescent↗