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Biomedical subjects

A W Holmes

Publications and source records attributed to A W Holmes.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

Hepatitis among plasma fractionation workers. An industry-wide study.

An industry-wide survey of plasm fractionation facilities in the United States was conducted during 1973-74. Hepatitis was reported among the workers with varying degrees of plasma contact at all plant sites. For each of fourteen facilities in this investigation, field inspections disclosed: (1) numerous overt instances of employee-product contact: (2) inconsistent methodologic approaches at virtually all stages of the plasma fractionation process; (3) at low level of management and employee awareness regarding the potential bio-hazard identified; and (4) disparate examples of hepatitis surveillance and prophylaxis. Our data suggests that there is a high risk of hepatitis among plasma fractionation workers and, as such, much more attention needs to be focused on the reduction of health hazards within this industry.

Biological Products

Reye's syndrome in an adult.

Reye's syndrome (fatty infiltration of the liver with encephalopathy) is an uncommon disease of children and has not previously been noted in adult patients. We present a 25-year-old male who survived this syndrome after presenting a stuporous state. Etiologic and pathophysiologic mechanisms are considered.

Adult

Prevalance of antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen in various populations.

Sera from individuals with different degrees of exposure to the agent of hepatitis B were tested for antibodies to hepatitis B surface antigen (anti-HB-s) by passive hemagglutination and for hepatitis B surface antigen (HB-s Ag) by radioimmunoassay and immunoelectroosmophoresis. In a plasma fractionation plant, anti-HB-s was detected in 82 percent of workers processing human plasma and 3.3 percent were healthy carriers of the antigen. Fifty-six percent of the workers having only casual contact with plasma processing exhibited anti-HB-s and 24 percent of workers with no contact had anti-HB-s, yet HB-s Ag was not found in either of these two groups of workers. A similar correlation was shown in hospital personnel; 31 percent of employees with direct contact to serum specimens and only 8 percent without direct contact had anti-HB-s. The frequency of HB-s Ag (0.8 percent in patients with disorders not involving the liver; 49.8 percent in patients tentatively diagnosed as viral hepatitis) and anti-HB-s (14.5 percent to 28.5 percent, respectively) in selected groups of hospitalized patients varied greatly. In 508 paid blood donors, anti-HB-s was present in 19.9 percent, whereas it was present in only 6.6 percent of 1,146 volunteer donors. These data demonstrate a correlation between frequency of exposure to human blood or blood products and the prevalence of anti-HB-s.

Antibodies

The mythology of various hepatitis A virus isolates.

Several types of viral hepatitis may exist. Hepatitis A (MS-1 type) can be transmitted to marmosets and chimpanzees. Virus-like particles, which may be parvo- or enteroviruses and which have been demonstrated in feces of this type of hepatitis, do not share cross-reacting antigens with hepatitis B but do cross-react with fecal hepatitis A antigen. Hepatitis A (GB type), which also does not cross-react with hepatitis B, is not antigenically identical with MS-1; it can be transmitted to marmosets and it may be similar to non-type A/non-type B post-transfusion hepatitis. Hepatitits B does not cross-react either with HA particles, the faecal hepatitis type A antigen or with the MS-1 or GB strains; it can be transmitted to chimpanzees and rhesus monkeys but not to marmosets.

Animals

Hepatitis in marmosets.

Some species of marmosets are susceptible, not only by parenteral inoculation but also by oral exposure, to human hepatitis A virus present in sera or feces. The stools of animals inoculated parenterally or orally contained fecal antigen during certain times of the incubation period and the early, acute phase of the disease; viruslike particles were present in feces of orally infected animals and such feces were infectious when inoculated into marmosets. The fecal antigen crossreacted both with the fecal virus particles and the immune-adherence antigen (see also papers by Purcell et al and Hilleman et al). The MS-1 and CR-326 strains of hepatitis A appeared antigenically similar or identical whereas the GB strain was antigenically different and may be associated with the recently defined type of hepatitis termed hepatitis C or hepatitis non-A/non-B. On repeated challenge hyperegic responses with diffuse liver cell necrosis occurred in some immune animals and this phenomenon must be taken into account in any future vaccination studies.

Animals