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Biomedical subjects

Y Elkana

Publications and source records attributed to Y Elkana.

14 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Cutaneous leishmaniasis in Israel in the era of changing environment.

BACKGROUND: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a zoonotic disease, endemic and notifiable in Israel. The vectors are sandflies of the genus Phlebotomus, the hosts are mainly field rodents. The infective agents are Leishmania parasites. Ph. papatasi is the recognized vector of L. major, while Ph. sergenti is considered to be the vector of L. tropica. AIM: To increase awareness of leishmaniasis, enhance surveillance, and improve reporting. METHODS: Morbidity data were obtained from disease notifications reported to the Department of Epidemiology of the Israeli Ministry of Health. RESULTS: The annual number of reported CL cases during the period 1961-2000 varied between less than 10 to over 250, with rates varying between 0.13 to over 7 per 100,000. Two peaks, between 1967-1969 and 1980-1982, are clearly seen. These peaks reflect environmental changes caused by the introduction of non-immune people (mainly Jews) into the area of endemic foci, enhanced urbanization by expansion of settlements bordering this area, agricultural/industrial projects, and most probably the effect of Global Warming. Recently, an increasing trend in the prevalence of the disease has been reported also by the Palestinian Authority and countries in the Mediterranean basin, reflecting shared changes in modern demographic and environmental conditions. These factors include population growth and movements, as well as ecological changes. CONCLUSIONS: Cooperation of the Ministries of Health and Environment of the countries of the whole Middle East region in combating the vectors and the reservoirs in animal hosts are a major need.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Study of the association between waterborne diseases and microbial water quality in Israel.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this project was to look for an association between microbial quality of drinking water and those gastrointestinal diseases that are known to be also waterborne. METHODS: For this purpose available databases of the Israeli Ministry of Health were used: (1) Registry of notifiable diseases and (2) microbial quality of drinking water. The association was examined by regressing incidence rates of salmonellosis, shigellosis, and hepatitis on three measures of microbial water quality and calculating the coefficient of determination (r2). Analysis was carried out for the years 1985-1992. RESULTS: Significant dependence of disease incidence on water quality was found for 1988 and, for hepatitis, also for 1989-92. This dependence is shown to be the result of the coincidence of high disease rate with high proportion of polluted water samples in two small subdistricts. CONCLUSIONS: The general lack of dependence of morbidity on water quality suggests that the water route contributes only slightly to these diseases in Israel. For a more meaningful analysis, a higher geographic resolution of morbidity reporting is recommended.

Dysentery, Bacillary↗
PubMed1995

Genetic and environmental sources of fibrinogen variability in Israeli families: the Kibbutzim Family Study.

Genetic and environmental determinants of plasma fibrinogen were investigated in a sample of 82 kindreds residing in kibbutz settlements in Israel. The sample included 223 males and 229 females ages 15-97 years. Fibrinogen levels were first adjusted for variability in sex and age. There was a significant familial aggregation of adjusted fibrinogen levels, as indicated by inter- and intraclass correlation coefficients significantly different from zero. Commingling analysis implied that in this population a mixture of two normal distributions fit the adjusted fibrinogen levels better than did a single normal distribution. Complex segregation analysis was first applied to these sex- and age-adjusted data. Heterogeneous etiologies for individual differences were suggested. There was evidence for a nontransmitted environmental major factor in addition to polygenic genes that explained the mixture of distributions. In parallel, a single recessive locus with a major effect that explained the adjusted variation in fibrinogen could not be rejected. However, when the regression model for sex and age allowed coefficients to be ousiotype (class)-specific, the recessive genetic model was rejected and the mixed environmental one was not. These results suggested that particular ousiotypes determined by the major environmental factor are associated with a steeper increase of fibrinogen with age. While at the age of 20 years, the major environmental factor contributed 10% to fibrinogen variability, and 48% was explained by polygenic loci, at 80 years of age, the major factor explained 64% and only approximately 20% was explained by polygenic factors.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

An evaluation of immune electron microscopy as a method for the quantitation of virus particles.

A comparison is made between poliovirus titres obtained by immune electron microscopy and those obtained by plaque assay. The former method yields smaller values which cannot be explained by inefficient sedimentation of virus-antibody clumps or incomplete settling on the grid. Using this comparison and immune electron microscopy the theoretical titre of hepatitis A virus can be estimated.

Antibodies, Viral↗
PubMed1983

Detection of hepatitis A virus in sewage.

Hepatitis A virus was found in the sewage of a town during an outbreak of hepatitis. The test for the presence of the virus in 50 ml sewage samples was carried out by affinity chromatography on an immunoadsorbent column followed by immune electron microscopy. The sewage samples were collected from several locations in the town. Hepatitis A virus was found only in a sample which was taken directly from the affected neighbourhood.

Antibodies, Viral↗
PubMed1975

Electrophoretic separation of Bacillus subtilis genes.

The cleavage of Bacillus subtilis DNA by EcoR1 restriction endonuclease produced segments which retain various degrees of genetic transforming activity. The active segments analyzed thus far, range in size from 23 to 3 kilobases and can be partially separated by agarose gel electrophoresis. Various markers can thus be enriched from 30- to 60-fold.

Bacillus subtilis↗