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Biomedical subjects

G T Stewart

Publications and source records attributed to G T Stewart.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

Epidemiological evaluation of immunisation and other factors in the control of whooping-cough.

The general incidence of whooping-cough is lower in fully immunised children, but present immunisation schedules do not adequately protect the infant below 1 year of age either from contracting infection or from its complications. In a recent outbreak in Glasgow, nearly one-third of notified cases were fully immunised. In Glasgow and probably in the U.K. as a whole, the persistance of whooping-cough in some areas is more strongly correlated with adverse socio-economic conditions that with lack of immunisation. The decline in recent years could be attributable to improvement in these conditions at least as much as to immunisation. There is no epidemiological justification for continuing mass immunisation, but there is a strong case for an intensified eradication policy which might include selective immunisation in high-risk groups and areas.

Adolescent↗

Medicine and health: What connection?

In most countries resources for the health services are allocated, increasingly and often overwhelmingly, to hosptial-oriented medical care and drug-dependent therapy. The assumption that community health will thereby be improved remains questionable even in developed countries, and is insupportable in developing countries. Technical advances and specialisation in medical sciences are now counterproductive by pre-empting limited resources and obscuring basic needs. To re-establish proportionality, priority should be accorded to: (a) application of proven preventive procedures for hazards of high prevalence, including excessive population growth; (b) improvements in housing and sanitation; and (c) extension of primary care by medical and other staff specially trained in the early recognition and management of personal complaints and of family and community problems.

Community Health Services↗

Rapid semiquantitative testing of antibiotic susceptibility: use of a multicell disk elution system.

Semiquantitative data regarding antibiotic susceptibility of bacteria were obtained by measuring the growth of bacteria in several different compartments ("cells") of a plastic module. Each compartment contained an inoculum of the organism and various concentrations of antibiotics in broth, achieved by elution of antibiotic from paper disks placed into the individual cells. Growth of the organisms was measured using an automated monitor to detect the scattering of light. Susceptibility of 300 strains of gram-negative bacilli to multiple concentrations of nine antibiotics was determined by this disk elution system, and the results (expressed in terms of four clinical susceptibility groupings) were compared with those obtained by a quantitative agar dilution method. Results obtained by the two methods agreed completely in 78% of the 2,700 determinations. In evaluating whether individual strains would be susceptible to systemic therapy or not, results obtained by the two systems agreed in all except 149 of the tests. Results of testing by the disk elution method were available on the same day that testing was begun. A system of this type may prove useful, for it provides information of a semiquantitative nature and decreases the time between isolation of a bacterial pathogen and availability of susceptibility data to the clinician.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗

Comparison of in vitro susceptibility of Neisseria gonorrhoeae to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole on three different media.

In vitro susceptibility of 100 clinical isolates of Neisseria gonorrhoeae to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMZ combination; 1:19) was determined by the agar dilution technique using three different media under similar conditions. On Oxoid diagnostic sensitivity test, Mueller-Hinton, and GC agar media, the percentage of isolates inhibited by 2.5 mug or less of TMP per ml and 47.5 mug or less of SMZ per ml were 95, 90, and 84%, respectively. TMP-SMZ appeared to be effective in vitro against N. gonorrhoeae despite differences in the types of media used.

Culture Media↗