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Biomedical subjects

J R Forsyth

Publications and source records attributed to J R Forsyth.

27 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1980

An epidemiological survey of human brucellosis in three Victorian abattoirs.

During the period 1977-1978, a serological and epidemiological investigation was conducted by the Victorian Departments of Health and Agriculture to determine the risk to abattoir workers of exposure to Brucella abortus from infected cattle. Nearly 1000 specimens of serum from workers at three abattoirs were tested for brucella antibodies at the Microbiological Diagnostic Unit. Serum agglutination and antihuman globulin tests were performed by a microtitre technique. Approximately 25% of these specimens gave positive results, with a wide variation in frequency in different abattoirs. Data relating to personal, employment and medical history were obtained by means of questionnaires. An attempt was made to identify risk factors by analysis of this information and the serological results. Within each abattoir, the presence of detectable antibodies was no more likely in people with symptoms than in asymptomatic people working in the same abattoir. However, the proportion of workers with symptoms was much higher in two abattoirs with a relatively high percentage of seropositive workers, than in a third, in which the percentage was comparatively low. There was evidence that the risk of exposure to B. abortus correlated with the percentage of cows in the total yearly "kill" for each abattoir.

Abattoirs↗
PubMed1977

Effect of dose on antibody response to subunit influenza vaccine.

In a group of third-year medical students who were given subunit influenza virus vaccine, the haemagglutination-inhibition (HI) antibody response to A/Victoria/3/75, and the boosting of HI antibody to previously circulating A strains of the Hong Kong subtype were independent of the dosage in the tested range. There was minimal boosting of antibody levels to the Asian strains which circulated during the childhood of the volunteers. The antibody responses to the B/Hong Kong/8/73 component were lower and were dose-related. There was no appreciable increase in the HI geometric mean titre to any of the strains after a second dose.

Antibodies, Viral↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Tropical pyomyositis in the Solomon Islands: clinical and aetiological features.

A prospective study of tropical pyomyositis (TP) in the Solomon Islands' Western Province followed 48 cases (mean age 10.6 years) from a population of 20,000 Melanesians over a two-year period. 32 patients were under 10 years and the male:female ratio was 1.7. Affected muscle was painful, swollen and often fluctuant but hard and indurated in presuppurative lesions. Abscesses, single in 40 and multiple in 8 subjects, were sited in the large muscles of the buttock, thigh, shoulder, arm and back on 52 occasions (90%). They contained 5-200 ml of pus which invariably grew penicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus sensitive to cloxacillin and erythromycin. All phage typable strains were identified as group 2 in contrast to the wider range of types found at carrier sites in otherwise healthy controls. TP was preceded by trauma in 30 cases (63%) and 26 (55%) of the patients had pre-existing pyoderma. Histological examination of clinically unaffected muscle biopsies from 10 subjects with solitary (7) or multiple (3) abscesses showed no abnormality. Serological evidence of previous infection with adenoviruses or myxoviruses was present in the same proportion (41-42%) of controls as of 22 patients tested. The results provide no evidence for antecedent diffuse myositis, viral or parasitic infections or nutritional deficiencies but support the role of trauma in localizing haematogenous skin staphylococci into damaged muscle.

Child↗