Salmonella javiana, a serotype rarely isolated in Australia, has been recovered from the faeces of a 14-month-old infant with symptoms of enteritis.

The child had been closely associated with a marsupial species, the quokka, during a vacation on Rottnest Island in Western Australia, and S. javiana was isolated from faecal pellets from adult quokkas, and also from a snake collected on the island.

Sampling revealed a high incidence of Salmonella infection in the quokkas. In all, 62 out of 87 animals (71%) were found to be infected, and 17 Salmonella and 3 Arizona serotypes were identified from 100 isolations comprising 92 salmonellas and 8 arizonas. Multiple infections were frequently detected and up to four serotypes were recovered from individual animals. S. javiana was isolated from four quokkas.

A close parallel was observed between the serotypes isolated from quokkas and sea-gulls on the island, and abattoir effluents, lake waters, bird droppings and reptiles sampled on the adjacent mainland.

The epidemiological significance of Salmonella and Arizona infections in the quokka population and their possible association with the seasonal decline in condition and numbers of animals on Rottnest Island is discussed.

The sequential development of the immune response in nasal washings was studied in 54 volunteers immunized with either attenuated or inactivated influenza B/Eng/13/65 virus vaccines.

Eleven of the 15 volunteers given the inactivated vaccine by deep subcutaneous inoculation showed no rise in nasal wash protein or immunoglobins due to the immunization procedure nor was specific neutralizing antibody detected in their nasal washings after immunization. Neutralizing antibody was detected in nasal washings of three volunteers in this group who also showed a 20-fold or greater increase in serum haemagglutinin-inhibiting antibody after immunization and in one volunteer who had antibody present in pre-trial nasal washings.

Eleven of 15 volunteers who were successfully infected by the live attenuated vaccine showed a characteristic rise in protein and IgA and IgG immunoglobin concentrations in nasal washings 5–14 days after the administration of the live virus vaccine. Neutralizing antibody was detected in the nasal washings of these 11 volunteers and appeared at the same time as or 1–2 days after the initial rise of protein and immunoglobin. Neutralizing antibody was also detected in the nasal washings of one other volunteer who did not show a rise in protein or immunoglobin concentration in nasal washings after immunization.

IgA was detected (⋟ 3 mg./lOO ml.) in the majority (84%) of nasal wash specimens which had a protein concentration of 0·2 mg./ml. or greater while IgG was not detected (⋟ 4·5 mg./lOO ml.) until the protein concentration rose to 0·4 mg./ml. or greater. The geometric mean concentration for normal nasal wash protein in this study was 0·3 + 0·1 mg./ml.

Regression analysis indicated that the concentrations of both IgA and IgG immunoglobins were directly proportional to the protein concentration in nasal washings but that this relationship varied considerably between individuals.

Absorption studies indicated that neutralizing and haemagglutinin-inhibiting antibodies in nasal secretion to influenza B/Eng/13/65 virus were predominantly associated with the IgA class of immunoglobin.

Two different types of inclusion bodies have been found by electron-microscopy in the cytoplasm of sectioned lymphocytes from children infected with measles.

The first is tubular, 18 nm. internal diameter, embedded in osmiophilic material, and is found during the incubation period. It is not thought to be specific for measles, and is probably identical with structures recently reported in HEp-2 cell lines and tumour tissue.

The second type is less obviously tubular and morphologically resembles measles nucleocapsid. This was found only after the rash had appeared.

Summer thermal sensations of secondary schoolchildren in England are compared with those earlier published for winter. Heat stress, contrary to expectation, is seen to decrease during the warm months, and neutrality is found to increase by some 6° F. (3·5° C.) air temperature, which is more than double the increases observed for adults under similar circumstances.

The somatic and flagellar serum agglutinin titre were determined in paired samples obtained from seventy-seven cases of bovine abortion associated with Salmonella dublin infection. The cases could be divided into four serological groups with an active infection being demonstrated in most cases. The serum agglutination test was shown to be a relatively specific diagnostic test but was of more limited value in the retrospective identification of convalescent cases.

The serum and whey agglutination test were compared on paired samples from thirty-five cases of bovine abortion associated with Salmonella dublin infection. The whey test proved nearly as useful as the serum test for confirming an active infection though it was only practicable to examine the whey for flagellar antibodies. S. dublin was isolated from nearly half of the milk samples obtained within the first week of abortion but none of those collected after the fourth week. The whey test proved of no value in retrospective identification of abortion cases. The trial using the milk ring test was disappointing.

Isolations of subgenus III salmonellas (arizonas) made in the regional Public Health Laboratory, Cardiff, between 1959 and 1971 are reviewed. The techniques of isolation are listed for the various materials examined. The necessity of using bismuth sulphite agar as a plating medium is stressed, as some strains might appear on brilliant green MacConkey agar as rapid lactose fermenters and be missed. The serotypes isolated in Cardiff are discussed with reference to isolations by other authors. The culture of a subgenus III salmonella from pig faeces is described. It is thought that this is the first record of such an isolation from a pig in the United Kingdom.

Results are presented on tests carried out over the past 5 years to measure the antibody titre of various rabbit populations to a soluble antigen of myxoma virus. In an unexpectedly high percentage of immune rabbits the antibody fell below measurable titres, and later rose to measurable titres without the advent of an observable epizootic of myxomatosis. The re-stimulation of the immune response is discussed in terms of re-infection and virus reactivation.

Prototype strains of the influenza A (H3N2) virus can be arranged on a gradient showing the degree of the antigenic drift which the haemagglutinins of the strains have undergone. The demonstration of fine antigenic differences is based on an antiserum absorption test which allows a detailed antigenic analysis of strains. The gradient provides information on variation in strains occurring in different geographical areas and its use may be helpful in differentiating between introduced strains and locally developing variants.

A case of typhoid fever caused by Salmonella typhi occurred in Geneva. The patient was probably infected in Mexico City. The strain isolated from this patient corresponds with the description of the Mexican S. typhi strain, since it is a degraded Vi-strain resistant to chloramphenicol, streptomycin, sulphonamides and tetracyclines. It carried an fi− transferable R factor with a CSSuT resistance pattern. It can be accepted that this case forms part of the Mexican outbreak of chloramphenicol-resistant typhoid fever which has already been observed in visitors to Mexico from England and the United States.

TRIC agents do not multiply in mouse peritoneal macrophages in culture but have a toxic effect on them, whereas they multiply readily in BHK-21 cells. Sections of macrophages and of BHK-21 cells fixed during the first 90 min after inoculation were examined by electron microscopy. Macrophages ingested all forms of the organism, which were eventually degraded in lysosomes. However, elementary bodies were distinguished from other TRIC particles by the delay in their transfer to lysosomes. BHK-21 cells ingested elementary bodies selectively, and in these cells the organisms were neither found in lysosomes nor degraded. Instead they showed morphological changes that probably represented an early stage of development.

The effects of oral chemotherapy and stay in hospital on the antibiotic resistance patterns of faecal coliform flora were studied. The coliform flora of 64% of 25 patients who were not receiving antibiotics was sensitive to all drugs tested. Hospitalization alone did not affect this proportion. The administration of tetra-cycline or ampicillin to patients, whether at home or in hospital, significantly increased the percentage of resistant bowel coliforms. Tetracycline showed a significantly greater effect than ampicillin. There was no significant increase in the percentage of patients with resistant flora after treatment with amoxycillin.

A prospective serological and clinical study of the epidemics due to the A2/Hong Kong/68 influenza virus was made during the winters 1968–9 and 1969–70 in volunteer subjects in the Royal Air Force. In October 1968 nearly all subjects had haemagglutination inhibiting (HI) antibody to the A2/Singapore/57 virus and more than half had antibody to strains more recently prevalent in Britain. The proportion with HI antibody to A2/Hong Kong/68 increased from 31% in October 1968 (most at low titres) to 44% after the first epidemic and 72% after the second (most at high titres). Serological infection rates were much lower in those who had detectable antibody at the beginning of each winter than in those who did not. Respiratory illnesses coupled with serological evidence of influenza infection during the winter were rare in persons with an initial titre of HI antibody of 1/40 or more. Infection in the first winter conferred complete protection against infection, with or without illness, in the second. In both epidemics about half those with serological evidence of infection had no reported illness.

Typing of Mycobacterium avium strains obtained in a study of endemic tuberculosis in a Wildfowl Reserve permitted the recognition of two separate infected groups. The main infection was in Anatidae and was due to M. avium, type 1; the other was in chickens used for incubation and brooding and the predominance in it of type 2 agreed with normal experience of birds, pigs and cattle in Britain. Many of the strains isolated from the Anatidae were aberrant and methods used to investigate these are described; two of the strains may belong to a new type. Birds which died from other causes, usually trauma, often had subclinical tuberculosis and 5% of the samples of mud and soil examined yielded M. avium.

An evaluation has been undertaken of the efficiency of laminar-flow ventilation in operating-rooms in which conventional operating-room clothing was used. It has been demonstrated that velocities in the region of 0·3–0·4 m/sec. will give maximum returns for effort in both down-flow and cross-flow systems. At this velocity the laminar-flow system, in terms of airborne bacteria measured at the would site, was about 11 times more effients using horizontal air-flow and 35–90 times more efficient using vertical air-flow than a plenum-ventilated operating room.

Pork was cured by (a) the Wiltshire method and (b) a hygienic sweet cure process. Representative samples of both bacons were inoculated at ‘low’ density (103 organisms/g.) and ‘high’ density (106 organisms/g.) with a toxin-producing strain of Staphylococcus aureus, ‘High’ and ‘low’ density samples of both bacons were each stored at 5° C. for 42 days and 15° C. for 21 days.

Results indicated that the test organism at high inoculum density grew slowly in both bacons at 5° C. The organism survived at 5° C. in both ‘low density’ bacons. At 15° C. the test organism grew; growth being more pronounced in the ‘hygienic’ than in Wiltshire bacon.

An electronic particle counting device is described, based on a constant-temperature hot-wire anemometer probe. The device has found application in tracing the motions of droplets and measuring their concentration within ventilated areas when subjected to different types of ventilation. In this way the effectiveness of various systems may be determined.

In correspondence arising out of our recent paper (Wyon, Andersen & Lundqvist, 1972), interest has been expressed in the relative widths of the comfort zones obtained by using the Bedford 7-point scale and our proposed dial-vote scale. It was possible to make a direct comparison on our original data, using votes registered simultaneously on the two scales at the end of each hour of exposure. Air temperature rose only slowly towards the end of each hour, and the comparison is probably valid also for steady-state conditions. The proportions voting ‘too hot’ (Bedford categories 6, 7, dial vote >66·6%) and ‘too cold’ (Bedford categories 1, 2, dial vote <33·3%) were derived and probit analysis was performed (Pinney, 1947). Only responses obtained from the 36 female subjects are considered, for very few males were too cold in the temperature range 23–29° C The results are shown in Fig. 1, using the same presentation as in fig. 7 of the original paper. No statistically significant differences could be shown between the pairs of regression lines, either in terms of their slopes or median values. However, the tendency is clearly for the dial-vote method to yield if anything a rather narrower and lower comfort distribution, and hence a narrower zone of comfort, however defined. This in spite of a marked ‘comfort zone’ occupying as much as one-third full scale. As pointed out in our original paper, the comfort zone yielded by either scale should be regarded as a zone of tolerance and not as a zone of ideal comfort.

In laboratory experiments the acute eye irritation produced by exposure to tap water was not significantly increased when chlorine compounds were added to the water at concentrations of 1 mg./l. The greatest irritation was produced by 2 mg. Cl2/1. as NH2C1. The addition of NaCl at concentrations above about 0·5% abolished the irritant effect of tap water, and prevented irritation even when 1 mg. Cl2/1. was present.

In a field experiment involving two swimming baths, one with fresh and the other with saline water (0·5 % NaCl), eye irritation in the saline bath was significantly lower than in the freshwater bath only when the swimming time did not exceed 30 min.

A study of Sonne dysentery infections in 19 primary and 11 secondary day-schools and 4 day-nurseries has been made over a period of 18 years in an urban area. Measures were taken throughout to try to prevent and control outbreaks. Sonne dysentery was not endemic in the school population and, even at times of high incidence, epidemics were localized within a few of the primary schools, usually in the spring or autumn terms. Incidence rates of Sonne dysentery were highest in primary schools with large infant departments and in nurseries. Secondary schools entirely escaped outbreaks.

The co-operation of head teachers was engaged for all precautionary measures in schools. A policy of immediate exclusion of suspected and infected children was useful in preventing and controlling school epidemics of dysentery. Toilet hygiene was often poor in schools with outbreaks, and this was found to be a profitable field for applying control measures. Infected kitchen workers were only occasionally involved.

Recommendations are given in the light of this study, and some reference is made to the more difficult problem posed by dysentery outbreaks in day-nurseries, where temporary closure may be the best policy. It is important that responsibility for infectious disease control in schools be clearly delineated in the reorganized health services of 1974. Teachers can play an important part in limiting infection.