Evaluation of community-based rehabilitation in Punjab, Pakistan: II: The prevalence of diseases, impairments, and handicaps

A health survey using the impairment and handicap classifications from the ICIDH was carried out in conjunction with a study of the WHO community-based rehabilitation programme in a village and a slum area in Pakistan. The prevalence of handicaps defined in this way was about half that of impairments, the most common handicaps being with mobility, occupation, and social integration. There was a slightly higher degree of handicap in the village. In both areas diseases of the musculoskeletal system, the ear, and the respiratory tract were common, but the frequency of infectious, respiratory, endocrine, blood, and digestive diseases was higher in the slum area.

Declaring cure in women with gonorrhoea

The case notes of 426 women who had been treated for uncomplicated gonorrhoea in 1978-83 inclusive, were studied. The findings for 1978 formed a retrospective basis for a prospective study. The aim was to appraise the value of earlier and fewer follow up tests of cure. The new routine was associated with a more assertive approach to other modalities of control. It was concluded that the interests of individual patients, as well as those aimed at control, were adequately served by one set of smear and culture specimens. There was one proviso. Potential "repeaters" need to be identified and treated individually in terms of follow up testing.

Topical treatment of recurrent genital herpes simplex virus infections with trisodium phosphonoformate (foscarnet): double blind, placebo controlled, multicentre study

A double blind, placebo controlled trial was performed in nine sexually transmitted diseases (STD) clinics in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands to investigate the efficacy of trisodium phosphonoformate (foscarnet) cream in treating recurrent genital herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection. The study group comprised 145 male and 85 female patients. Men received 0.3% foscarnet cream and women 1% foscarnet cream for five days. The difference in time to healing between patients receiving foscarnet or placebo was not significant. Fewer patients treated with foscarnet had positive viral cultures after treatment, but the difference was not significant. The development of new lesions, however, was significantly less common in patients given foscarnet. Though topical foscarnet is a safe drug, no appreciable efficacy in treating recurrent genital HSV infection could be shown.

Cardioregulatory properties of indoramin in the rat

The antihypertensive action of the competitive alpha-adrenoceptor antagonist indoramin is not accompanied by reflex tachycardia in animals or man. The possibility that the established local anaesthetic property of indoramin is involved in its cardioinhibitory action has been investigated. Indoramin evoked a dose-dependent bradycardia in anaesthetized/pithed rats. The decrease in heart rate was slightly greater than that evoked in anaesthetized intact animals suggesting that indoramin had a direct action on the heart. Reflex tachycardia was simulated in pithed rats be increasing the frequency of cardiac nerve stimulation from 0.3 to 1 Hz. Indoramin and the local anaesthetic agents, lignocaine and procaine, reduced the positive chronotropic response without markedly altering the basal rate. The response curves were parallel. In contrast, phentolamine decreased the positive chronotropic response, but only at high doses which were associated with a marked decrease in the basal rate. Thymoxamine and prazosin had so significant effects on the chronotropic response. These experiments suggest that the cardioregulatory action of indoramin is attributable to its local anaesthetic property had this action further distinguishes it from the other alpha-adrenoceptor antagonists tested.

Prevalence of rectal and pharyngeal infection in women with gonorrhoea in Sheffield

The prevalence of gonococcal infection of the rectum and pharynx in 239 consecutive women with gonorrhoea presenting as named contacts was 47% and 10% respectively. In 2% of all patients the rectum and pharynx were each the sole sites of infection. Treatment failure occurred in three patients given a single dose of aqueous procaine penicillin 2.4 megaunits intramuscularly, two of whom had rectal infections; no treatment failures occurred in patients with pharyngeal infections. The incidence of rectal gonorrhoea significantly increased with the duration of infection (P less than 0.001). This suggests that autoinoculation from infected vaginal material is of major importance in the transmission of gonococcal infection to the rectum.

Improved management in the diagnosis of gonorrhoea in women

In this paper an evaluation is made of the endeavours to improve diagnosis in women named as contacts of gonorrhoea. The problem was approached in three ways. (a) The number of sites sampled was increased. (b) The results of microscopical examination of smears made by clinical staff were regularly evaluated. (c) Cultural examinations by the supporting laboratory were dealt with more efficiently and speedily. It is concluded that the number of tests currently used to establish or exclude a diagnosis of gonorrhoea in women can safely be reduced to two, and that the methods currently in use allow a more cost-effective management of an increasing case load.

Candidal vaginitis: natural history, predisposing factors and prevention

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Further observations on the experimental antidysrhythmic activity of indoramin hydrochloride

Indoramin showed potent activity in reversing severe myocardial conduction disorders and ventricular fibrillation induced by hypothermia, and protected against the precipitation of electrically-induced ventricular fibrillation at low doses in pentobarbitone-anaesthetized cats. It would appear that the α-adrenoceptor blocking and local anaesthetic membrane stabilizing properties of indoramin are responsible for the mechanisms by which these dysrhythmias are reversed as they are with those induced by ouabain and adrenaline, previously described.