Declining male births in Germany before and after reunification.
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Male births occur 3% in excess of female births in mammals in a ratio (M/F) of 0.515. Many factors have been shown to influence this, including socioeconomic deprivation. This paper reviews live birth data for Germany over the period 1946-2009, and identifies secular trends in M/F pre- and post-reunification. The null hypothesis is that there were no differences between East and West Germany, geographically or temporally, before and after reunification. Annual data on male and female live births were obtained from the Human Mortality Database and analyzed with contingency tables. These data were available separately for East and West Germany (1950-1989). There was a significant decline in M/F in both German Republics overall and before reunification (p<0.0001). No decline was present after. Pre-reunification, West Germany had a lower overall M/F than East Germany (p=0.001). In conclusion, a declining M/F has been shown in many countries over the past decades. The two German Republics' M/F fell prior to reunification and the economic collapse of East Germany. Contracting societies that offer poor socioeconomic conditions (such as the communist former East Germany) may result in a decrease in M/F, but this is not reflected in the data, which show that M/F in West Germany prior to reunification was lower than in East Germany. This is not explicable with the contracting economies hypothesis; other and as yet unknown influences may have modified M/F trends anticipated by known variables. (+info)
Cardiovascular disease and use of oral contraceptives. WHO Collaborative Study.
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Considerable evidence from the United Kingdom and North America has shown that oral contraceptive use is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. However, since little is known about the link between the two in other parts of the world, WHO initiated a hospital-based case-control study in three centres in Mexico, Hong Kong, and the German Democratic Republic. Both cases and controls were asked about their past and current use of contraception as well as details on a number of potential confounding factors. Three main diagnostic categories were studied: venous thromboembolism (VTE) and pulmonary embolism (PE), ischaemic heart disease (IHD), and stroke. An overall relative risk of 2.9 (95% confidence limits, 1.4-6.1) for VTE/PE was found among recent or current users of oral contraceptives. Although this elevated risk is consistent with the results of other studies, the possibility of detection bias cannot be ruled out. The small number of cases (8) of IHD identified in the course of this study greatly limited the conclusions that could be drawn for this disease. Similarly with stroke, the small number of cases limited the conclusions that could be drawn, particularly since it was not possible to distinguish between thrombotic and haemorrhagic stroke. In addition to suggesting an increased risk of VTE/PE, the study pointed out the importance of ensuring an adequate sample size based on newly-diagnosed cases, the need for a coordinating centre to monitor the study closely in each centre and to provide a central review of each case, and the necessity of more specific diagnoses for meaningful interpretation of the data. (+info)
Epidemiology of influenza during 1957--75 in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the German Democratic Republic.
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Analysis of clinical data collected by the epidemiological services in both countries showed that each shift or drift in the antigenic structure of the influenza virus resulted in epidemics in both countries. Depending on the degree of antigenic change, both shifts and drifts influenced the speed of epidemic spread and the time of occurrence and the intensity of the epidemics. However, the analyses did not reveal a direct relation between degree of antigenic variation and the attack rate or the severity of the epidemic. The mean attack rate in both countries was about 13% depending on the pathogenicity of the circulating virus. The severity of the epidemics varied in the two countries but the fourth epidemic after each shift was severe in both countries. The reasons for this and other features of the epidemiology are discussed. (+info)
Strategy for the primary and secondary prevention of occupational diseases in the German Democratic Republic.
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This review explains the German Democratic Republic's strategy for preventing occupational diseases, which is considered one of the primary purposes of public health. It is a complex challenge that is being tackled through close cooperation between enterprise-linked occupational health services, the inspectorates of industrial hygiene, public health centers, and trade unions. In primary prevention, planning is based on results obtained in thorough analyses of all the relevant parameters, such as work conditions, industrial accidents, occupational diseases, morbidity records, and the quality of social services, and a complex work analysis has been developed to provide comprehensive and measurable information on health hazards due to harmful physical and chemical factors, dust, and job-related physical and neuropsychic stresses. Primary prevention is realized mainly through the elimination of health hazards and the improvement of work conditions, both based on a comprehensive framework of legislation. At the level of secondary prevention, company-linked occupational health services are a part of the national health services. A nationwide information system consists of compatible components for primary and secondary prevention, thus enabling control of exposure-effect relationships and the optimization of health policy. (+info)
Multiply- and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated in the German Democratic Republic in 1985 and 1986.
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Multiply- and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains have been isolated from five small outbreaks of nosocomial infection in five different hospitals. The MRSA were typed by phage patterns, biochemical traits, resistance phenotypes and plasmid patterns. Three different groups of strains can be distinguished. The MRSA from three outbreaks in one country share identical characters. Phage typing by the use of the International Basic Set for Phage Typing staphylococci as well as experimental phages does not completely discriminate between the strains. Attribution of several resistance determinants to plasmids in two of the described strain groups proved valuable for strain differentiation. These multiply-resistant strains are sensitive to vancomycin and to rifampicin. (+info)
Genome analysis of influenza A virus strains isolated during an epidemic of 1979-1980.
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The genome and polypeptides of influenza A virus H3N2 strains isolated during the epidemic of 1979-1980 in the U.S.S.R. and G.D.R. have been analysed. Five varieties of H3N2 strains differing in a number of genes have been found. The isolates of the first group was similar to the A/Texas/1/77 strain in all the genes; the isolates of the second group were similar to the A/Bangkok/1/79 strain in all the genes; the strain representative of the third variety, contained all the genes except gene 4 close to those of the A/Bangkok/1/79 strain; the isolates of the fourth group contained genes 7 and 8 similar to those of the A/Bangkok/1/79 strain while the other genes corresponded to those of no strains under comparison; the viruses of the fifth group contained gene 3 similar to that of A/Moscow/406/76 strain, gene 7 was similar to that of A/Texas/1/77 strain and the other genes differed from all other strains compared. The data obtained indicate that during an influenza epidemic occurring in certain region several influenza virus varieties of the same serotype can circulate simultaneously, differing not only in the antigenic specificity of the haemagglutinin, but also in other genes. (+info)
Health effects of high level exposure to traditional pollutants in East Germany--review and ongoing research.
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In East Germany ambient air pollution is characterized by high concentrations of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and suspended particulates (SP). Since acidity and sulfate are surprisingly low, oxidation of SO2 seems to be incomplete and neutralization seems to play an important role. Few studies on health effects of air pollution in the former German Democratic Republic have been performed. They showed an increased prevalence in polluted areas of respiratory symptoms, lung function decrement, mild anemia, nonspecific stimulation of the immune system and, retardation of skeletal maturation of children. Since the German unification in 1990, several large-scale studies have been started. Short-term effects of air pollution on daily mortality have been investigated in Erfurt retrospectively for 1980 to 1989. Logarithmic exposure-effect curves have been found for both SO2 and SP. The number of deaths increased by about 10% with SO2 and by more than 20% with SP if the 95th percentile of the pollutant is compared to the 5th percentile. The logarithmic shape shows that the increase of ambient concentrations at the beginning of the heating season in fall is more important than further increases in concentrations later in winter. A second study on short-term effects was conducted using daily peak flow measurements and respiratory symptoms in 270 patients with asthma and other obstructive airway diseases in East Germany and the Czech Republic between 1990 and 1992. From regression analysis it follows that an increase by 500 micrograms/m3 of SO2 leads to a mean decrease of the average patient's peak flow below 2%.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS) (+info)