Vaccination services in postwar Iraq, May 2003.
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In the aftermath of the war in Iraq, widespread looting and intentional damage to government facilities resulted in the interruption of public services and utilities. Basic communications were disrupted nationally. Public health headquarters, clinics, and laboratories were damaged, records were ruined, and equipment was stolen. Because travel often was difficult and dangerous, Coalition forces received numerous requests from hospital directors for armed security, and many health-care workers reportedly feared either to commute to their worksites or to remain after dark (D. Simpson, M.D., Coalition Provisional Authority [CPA]'s Ministry of Health Team, personal correspondence, 2003). Public health employees who were able to continue their work went unpaid for several weeks. As a result, throughout Iraq, core public health services (e.g., vaccination services, vectorborne disease control, and the Tuberculosis Directly Observed Therapy program) were disrupted. In addition, severe health hazards caused by damaged water and sanitation systems were added to an already compromised and deteriorating health-care system. This report assesses the cumulative impact of these conditions on vaccination services in postwar Iraq, including the subsequent loss of staff, facilities, and equipment. Because vaccinations in Iraq are available only through the national system of primary health-care centers (PHCCs), this assessment can help address comparable problems experienced by other programs offered through Iraq's PHCCs, guide subsequent emergency responses to vaccine shortages, and provide a preliminary gauge of the status of preventive health-care infrastructure and services to children in Iraq. (+info)
Glycosylation restores survival of chilled blood platelets.
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Cooling of blood platelets clusters the von Willebrand factor receptor complex. Macrophage alphaMbeta2 integrins bind to the GPIbalpha subunit of the clustered complex, resulting in rapid clearance of transfused, cooled platelets. This precludes refrigeration of platelets for transfusion, but the current practice of room temperature storage has major drawbacks. We document that alphaMbeta2 is a lectin that recognizes exposed beta-N-acetylglucosamine residues of N-linked glycans on GPIbalpha. Enzymatic galactosylation of chilled platelets blocks alphaMbeta2 recognition, prolonging the circulation of functional cooled platelets. Platelet-associated galactosyltransferase produces efficient galactosylation when uridine diphosphate-galactose is added, affording a potentially simple method for storing platelets in the cold. (+info)
Surgical planing of the skin; dichlorotetrafluoro-ethane as a freezing agent.
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Surgical skin planing is, in the hands of an experienced operator, a safe and highly effective procedure for treating a number of cutaneous defects, most notably pitted acne scars. The operation is facilitated by the use of a new instrument (jet-spray handpiece) which allows the operator to freeze the skin and plane it almost simultaneously, and by a new freezing agent, dichlorotetrafluoro-ethane, which adds to the safety by eliminating the old hazards of inflammability, explosion, and the toxic inhalation of ethyl chloride. The ability to sharply differentiate between keloid and hypertrophic scar is fundamental to surgical skin planing. A hypertrophic scar results from the removal or destruction of the cutaneous appendages (hair follicles, oil and sweat glands and ducts); whereas a keloid is an idiosyncratic response without regard to damage of the appendages.Properly performed surgical planing does not entirely remove these appendages and therefore healing occurs without scarring. (+info)
Effects of substerilization doses of Co-60 gamma radiation on the cold-storage life extension of shucked soft-shelled clams and haddock fillets.
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Total aerobic-facultative and anaerobic (clostridia) macrocolony count data are presented, with analysis and interpretation, for both haddock fillets and shucked soft-shelled clams which received doses of from 50,000 to 800,000 rad of Co(60) gamma rays. These data indicated that haddock fillets may be maintained in good condition at refrigeration temperatures above freezing for about 1 week at 6 C, and approximately 2 weeks at 0 C, when treated with from 50,000 to 150,000 rad of ionizing radiation. In the dose range from 200,000 to 350,000 rad, the storage life may be extended up to some 2 weeks at 6 C, and 3 weeks at 0 C. Treatments in the dose range from 400,000 to 500,000 rad may defer spoilage for about 1 month, and doses of 550,000 to 650,000 rad afford protection against bacterial spoilage up to approximately 1.5 months. At the high substerilization doses of 700,000 to 800,000 rad, haddock fillets may be held for from 2 to 3 months in refrigerated storage before becoming unfit for marketing and consumption. Shucked soft-shelled clams can be held for about 2.5 weeks at 0 C and close to 12 days at 6 C, when given low substerilization doses of from 50,000 to 150,000 rad of ionizing radiation. At doses of from 200,000 to 350,000 rad, the clams may be preserved effectively for periods up to 3 weeks at 0 or 6 C, and some 6 weeks at these temperatures with doses of about 450,000 rad. With treatments of 500,000 to 600,000 rad, the storage life may be extended for some 2 months, and at doses of 650,000 to 800,000 rad the shucked clams remain in a good state of preservation for up to 3 months at temperatures of 0 to 6 C. Thus, it would appear that shucked soft-shelled clams may be maintained for significantly longer periods in refrigerated storage than haddock fillets when the same radiation treatments are applied to each product. Clostridia levels in both products were relatively low initially, and were reduced significantly by the gamma rays at the doses studied. Moreover, those clostridia that survived the radiation treatments were found to remain at safe, low levels during the various periods in refrigerated storage employed for these products, a very encouraging result from the public health, as well as commercial, standpoint. (+info)
Changes in the microflora of haddock fillets and shucked soft-shelled clams after irradiation with Co-60 gamma rays and storage at 0 C and 6 C.
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Frequency distribution patterns of aerobic-facultative microflora, obtained by random selection of macrocolonies from samples of haddock fillets and shucked soft-shelled clams before and after treatment with doses of from 50,000 to 800,000 rad of Co(60) gamma rays, are presented, with analyses and interpretation. The data showed that a decided change occurred in the constitution of the microbial populations of both products: from a mixed gram-negative-gram-positive flora to a predominantly gram-positive flora immediately after irradiation. The great majority of these surviving microorganisms were micrococci, sporeforming bacilli, and certain yeasts, molds, and actinomyces. During storage at refrigeration temperatures above freezing, the microflora changed from the descendants of the more radioresistant gram-positive species to the more prolific gram-negative psychrophilic species that flourish at these low temperatures. Micrococci and gram-positive rods declined somewhat during the rise of the actively proteolytic-lipolytic pseudomonads and related species, but still remained at high enough levels to contribute significantly to the spoilage observed at different times in storage. The eventual spoilage of haddock fillets was characterized by discoloration of the cream-white tissue with water-soluble yellow, green, and red bacterial pigments; degradation of the tissue, by proteolytic and other microbial enzymes, to a watery, flaccid mass; and formation of volatile compounds that smelled putrid, rancid, and generally foul and pungent. Shucked soft-shelled clams displayed a different spoilage pattern, changing to a variegated brown-gray and forming a matted or loose gelatinous mass from which arose stale, acrid, putrid, sulfurous odors. These differences are believed to be attributable to the varied biochemical nature of the tissues involved, the Eh potential within the tissues, the time sequence of microfloral change, and the species and types of microorganisms associated with each product. Staphylococci were present in small numbers in some of the samples tested, but did not appear to be species of public health significance. Gram-negative enteric rods were also encountered, but were considered to be of doubtful public health importance. More detailed investigations, designed to study the effects of Co(60) gamma radiations on such microbes in sea foods, would be useful in assessing the problem further. (+info)
Injury and death of Streptococcus lactis due to freezing and frozen storage.
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Cells of Streptococcus lactis were harvested in the early stationary phase, washed, and resuspended in either skim milk (10% nonfat milk) or buffered distilled water (0.0003 m dipotassium phosphate, pH 7.2). Samples of each suspension were frozen and stored at -20 C for intervals up to 28 days. Colony counts of the frozen culture were made using lactic agar and a "restricted" lactic agar medium (Tryptone reduced to 0.5%) to determine injury and death. Death was determined by the difference in plate counts on lactic agar before and after freezing. Injured cells were determined by the difference in plate counts on the two plating media. Greatest injury of the cells occurred during early stages of frozen storage and decreased with time, and death continuously increased. Injury and death were more pronounced when cells were frozen in water than when frozen in 10% nonfat milk solids. Certain cultures survived better when frozen rapidly, whereas with others survival was greater when freezing was slow. Successive freezing, thawing, and propagation of the culture gradually eliminated cells which showed injury by freezing. (+info)
Attempts to freeze some bacteriophages to ultralow temperatures.
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A variety of bacteriophages specific for different hosts, including Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Serratia marcescens, Shigella dysenteriae, Staphylococcus aureus, and Vibrio comma, were frozen at a controlled rate to liquid nitrogen temperatures, and then quick-thawed. Glycerol (10%) was used as a protective additive. Quantitative determinations showed from 10% to virtually 100% recovery in the various cases. Host specificity, plaque morphology, and, in one case, rate of inactivation of phage by homologous antiserum remained unchanged. (+info)
Comparison of several methods for preserving bacteriophages.
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A wide variety of bacteriophages were processed and stored under different conditions to compare methods for long-term preservation. Specimens were stored for 2 years at room temperature (24 to 28 C) and at 4 C as broth lysates in 50% glycerol, dried, and freeze-dried. Titers determined after processing indicated that, of the broth, glycerol, and freeze-dry methods, freeze-drying was most damaging to the phages tested, glycerol less damaging, and the broth method least damaging. After 2 years, titers of broth lysates were generally higher than those of glycerol or freeze-dried preparations. Dried preparations generally did not prove satisfactory. Preparations stored at 4 C showed better titers than those kept at room temperature. All titers declined with time regardless of the conditions of preservation. (+info)