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J Nahmias

Publications and source records attributed to J Nahmias.

16 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

High prevalence of human hydatid disease (echinococcosis) in communities in northern Israel: epidemiologic studies in the town of Yirka.

The resurgence of hydatid disease in communities in northern Israel led to epidemiologic studies in 1988 in the town of Yirka, a semirural Druze community of 8200 persons. In domestic animal surveys, 8% of 63 dogs tested after an arecoline purge and 10% of 255 sheep at the abattoir were found to be infected. In a randomized serosurvey of 758 persons using the indirect hemagglutination test (positive titer greater than or equal to 1:512), 9% (68) had a titer greater than or equal to 1:64, 2.2% had a titer greater than or equal to 1:256 and 0.9% had a titer greater than or equal to 1:512. Of those with titers greater than or equal to 1:64, 59 were evaluated by abdominal sonography and chest x-ray: 6 of the 59 were found to be persons who previously had had a liver or a lung hydatid cyst surgically removed; 6 other persons (5 with negative indirect hemagglutination titers) were found to have a newly detected asymptomatic cyst. Of the latter group, hydatid confirmation was subsequently obtained by surgery for 2 persons and by arc 5 and/or immunoblot assay for 4 persons. Thus, the cumulative percentage of confirmed present or recent past hydatid infections was 12/758 (1.6%) leading to an extrapolated rate of 1583/100,000 persons. This ranks Yirka among the highly endemic areas for hydatidosis worldwide. The study also showed that imaging methods were more sensitive than the indirect hemagglutination serologic test for conducting a prevalence survey.

Abattoirs↗
PubMed1991

Hepatitis B virus infection in Ethiopian immigrants to Israel.

Two groups of immigrants from Ethiopia, one of 86 and the other of 165 individuals, aged 0-40, were examined for hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in 1987-88, 3-7 years after their arrival in Israel. The results were compared with those obtained in the same age-group among Ethiopians who immigrated to Israel in 1980-82. The immigrants were found to be in good physical condition, their liver function tests were normal and no clinical evidence of chronic liver disease was found. Of the 22 children aged 0-4, 16 had anti-HBs as a result of vaccination at birth against HBV and they were excluded from the comparative study. In the age-groups 5-40 there was no significant change in the percentage of individuals positive for HBsAg, anti-HBs or anti-HBc only, compared with the group examined in 1980-82. There were two significant findings in this study: a) In 1987-88 [corrected], 8-9% of HBsAg-positive individuals had HBeAg and 64-81% had anti-HBe, while in 1980-82, 36% of those positive for HBsAg had HBeAg and only 25% had anti-HBe. b) At the time of arrival recent infection by HBV was indicated by the presence of IgM anti-HBc in 57% of those positive for HBsAg and 21% in whom anti-HBc was the sole serological HBV marker. In 1987-88 no IgM anti-HBc was found in HBsAg-positive persons or in those with anti-HBc only. These results indicate that most HBV infections in this population had occurred before their arrival in Israel. There is a profound change in the epidemiology of HBV infection in this Ethiopian population following immigration, which is probably due to environmental changes as well as to vaccination against HBV of all young children aged less than or equal to 3 years.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Mass treatment of intestinal parasites among Ethiopian immigrants.

Intestinal parasites are common among the Ethiopian immigrants to Israel and mass treatment is necessary to prevent local transmission. For this purpose, stool samples obtained from the immigrants in absorption centers were examined. Of 5,412 samples obtained, 4,399 (81.3%) were positive: 2,644 (54.2%) for Necator americanus, 2,273 (46.6%) for Schistosoma mansoni, 990 (20.3%) for Ascaris lumbricoides, 1,040 (21.3%) for Hymenolepsis nana, 940 (19.2%) for Trichuris trichiura, 219 (4.5%) for Strongyloides stercoralis, 17 (0.4%) for Fasciola hepatica, 551 (11.3%) for Giardia lamblia, and 499 (9.2%) for Entamoeba histolytica. The cure rate for necatoriasis by treatment with 400 mg of albendazole was 84.4% (better than with other drugs), either alone or in combination (pyrantel with bephenium or pyrantel with praziquantel, or praziquantel with albendazole). Albendazole, 400 mg for 3 days, cured 92% of the cases of S. stercoralis infection. Praziquantel, 40 mg/kg body weight, in a single dose was effective in 89.7% of cases of S. mansoni, and 60% of cases of H. nana, although a 100% cure rate for H. nana was achieved with praziquantel at a dose of 20 mg/kg per day for 2 days. Two persons infected with F. hepatica were cured by 40 mg/kg praziquantel for 7 days. Tinidazole, 2 g in a single dose, cured 100% of persons infected with G. lamblia, while 60% of persons infected with E. histolytica were cured when treated with 2 g tinidazole for 3 days. Mass treatment of all the immigrants with 400 mg albendazole and 40 mg/kg praziquantel concomitantly resulted in a cure rate of 84.4% of all intestinal worms.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Evaluation of albendazole, pyrantel, bephenium, pyrantel-praziquantel and pyrantel-bephenium for single-dose mass treatment of necatoriasis.

An effective drug for single-dose mass treatment of necatoriasis was sought by testing three drugs and two drug combinations in Ethiopian immigrants to Israel found to have light infections. The drugs tested sequentially in single-doses were pyrantel pamoate (20 mg kg-1, 81 subjects); bephenium hydroxynaphthoate (2.5-5 g, 65 subjects); combined pyrantel and bephenium (25 subjects); combined pyrantel (20 mg kg-1) and praziquantel (40 mg kg-1) (16 subjects); and albendazole (400 mg, 77 subjects). Follow-up under conditions without likelihood of reinfection was by one stool examination. Cure rates with albendazole, pyrantel-bephenium and pyrantel-praziquantel were 84, 80 and 81% respectively; these rates were significantly higher than the 49% found for bephenium and the 51% for pyrantel (P less than 0.05). Egg reductions in those not cured were pyrantel (22%), bephenium (6%), pyrantel-bephenium (34%), pyrantel-praziquantel (3%) and albendazole (6%). Albendazole was the most promising single drug treatment; unexpected was the high effectiveness of pyrantel-praziquantel in combination.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Current concepts in narcolepsy.

Narcolepsy, a disabling disorder, has been underdiagnosed. The classic tetrad of symptoms includes sudden sleep attacks, cataplexy, sleep paralysis, and hypnogogic hallucinations. Diagnosis and treatment will restore a normal quality of life.

Amphetamines↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Hepatitis B virus infection and liver disease in Ethiopian immigrants to Israel.

We assessed infection with hepatitis B virus in 357 Ethiopians who immigrated to Israel. Hepatitis B virus infection, as measured by the presence in the serum of HBsAg, anti-HBs, or anti-HBc, started at an early age (35% at the age of 1 to 4 years) and reached an overall rate of 98% in individuals over 40 years old. A high rate of HBsAg antigenemia in the young age group (19% at the age of 1 to 8 years) was associated with HBeAg and serum hepatitis B virus DNA. However, hepatitis B virus DNA was rarely detected in HBsAg-positive serum of older individuals who were anti-HBe-positive. No hepatitis B virus DNA sequences were detected in the serum of individuals who had anti-HBs. Despite the extremely high rate of hepatitis B virus infection that occurred at an early age, no clinical evidence of chronic liver disease in this population was detected.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Resurgence of hydatid disease (echinococcosis) in communities in northern Israel.

Hydatid disease (echinococcosis), formerly endemic in the area of Israel, has occurred only sporadically in the past 40 years, mostly in immigrants. An unusual spatial and temporal cluster of surgically confirmed infections in northern Israel led to a review of echinococcosis hospital records. This revealed a resurgence of the disease in some rural and semirural Arab and Druze communities. Between 1960 and 1989, 224 cases of hydatid disease were surgically confirmed in residents of these communities. During this period, as the Arab-Druze population doubled, the mean annual surgical incidence of new cases per 100,000 rose 5-fold from 1.4 to 7.1. In Yirka, a Druze community of 7500 persons, from which no cases were known before 1970 and in which 52 cases were surgically confirmed thereafter, the mean annual surgical incidence for 1980-1989 rose to 53/100,000, to become one of the highly endemic areas of the world. The probable explanation of the outbreak is that, since 1967 with the opening of the border, importation of infected sheep has occurred from the hydatid-endemic West Bank region to individual homes in the communities in northern Israel. The sheep are raised to maturity in pens before home slaughtering; the offal, available to dogs, resulted in canine and then human infections.

Disease Outbreaks↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type-I antibodies in Falashas and other ethnic groups in Israel.

Epidemiological studies of the human T-cell leukaemia/lymphoma virus type I (HTLV-I), a type-C retrovirus of the human T-lymphotropic virus family, have used serological surveys to identify population subgroups possessing a high prevalence of naturally occurring HTLV-I-specific antibodies. Studies carried out to delineate the global distribution of the virus have demonstrated natural antibodies to HTLV-I in the serum of healthy donors from specific geographical areas, and have defined viral endemic areas in Japan, the Caribbean basin, Africa and the southeastern United States. Such studies have suggested that the prevalence of HTLV-I antibodies is directly correlated with age, is associated with the clinical syndrome of adult T-cell lymphoma, and is associated with transmission from mother to child. A separate subtype of the human retrovirus, HTLV-II (refs 21, 22), has also been identified. The population of Israel in part comprises groups of immigrants of various ethnic and geographical origins. Because of this, and the fact that Israel has a highly developed public health system, we surmised that the ethnic groups in Israel could be used in a seroepidemiological survey of HTLV infection. The serological survey reported here demonstrates a high prevalence of HTLV-I antibodies in new immigrants from Ethiopia. This previously ethnically and geographically isolated group, the 'Black Jews' or 'Falashas', from the Gondar region in the northern rural highlands of Ethiopia, has the highest endemic rate of HTLV-I yet reported outside Japan.

Adult↗