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Biomedical subjects

R Fankhauser

Publications and source records attributed to R Fankhauser.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Water quality criteria for total suspended solids (TSS) in urban wet-weather discharges.

Total suspended solids (TSS) from combined sewer overflows (CSOs) and stormwater discharges represent a crucial parameter for evaluating wet-weather pollution in urban areas. In fact, the increase of TSS in water during rain events can have ecotoxic effects on aquatic organisms. Furthermore, major potentially harmful substances such as heavy metals, PAHs and organic matter are adsorbed onto TSS and later settle on sediment. Water quality criteria for TSS consequently enable the risk of wet-weather pollution to be assessed, for instance to avoid detrimental effects on aquatic organisms. The criteria proposed in this study cover the short-term impact of TSS on fish (acute quality criteria AQC), taking into account the duration of their exposure in the receiving water. The concentration-exposure duration-effect curve proposed here thus predicts "ill effects" on fish for different exposure times and TSS concentrations. The ecotoxic effects of adsorbed pollutants are also taken into account with an additional safety factor. We implement this TSS criteria in a software that allows us to estimate the number of rain events that exceed a given morbidity threshold for fishes per year.

Cities↗
PubMed2001

Gastroenteritis viruses: an overview.

Acute gastroenteritis is among the most common illnesses of humankind, and its associated morbidity and mortality are greatest among those at the extremes of age, children and the elderly. In developing countries, gastroenteritis is a common cause of death in children < 5 years that can be linked to a wide variety of pathogens. In developed countries, while deaths from diarrhoea are less common, much illness leads to hospitalization or doctor visits. Much of the gastroenteritis in children is caused by viruses belonging to four distinct families--rotaviruses, caliciviruses, astroviruses and adenoviruses. Other viruses, such as the toroviruses, picobirnaviruses, picornavirus (the Aichi virus), and enterovirus 22, may play a role as well. Viral gastroenteritis occurs with two epidemiologic patterns, diarrhoea that is endemic in children and outbreaks that affect people of all ages. Viral diarrhoea in children is caused by group A rotaviruses, enteric adenoviruses, astroviruses and the caliciviruses; the illness affects all children worldwide in the first few years of life regardless of their level of hygiene, quality of water, food or sanitation, or type of behaviour. For all but perhaps the caliciviruses, these infections provide immunity from severe disease upon reinfection. Epidemic viral diarrhoea is caused primarily by the Norwalk-like virus genus of the caliciviruses. These viruses affect people of all ages, are often transmitted by faecally contaminated food or water, and are therefore subject to control by public health measures. The tremendous antigenic diversity of caliciviruses and short-lived immunity to infection permit repeated episodes throughout life. In the past decade, the molecular characterization of many of these gastroenteritis viruses has led to advances both in our understanding of the pathogens themselves and in development of a new generation of diagnostics. Application of these more sensitive methods to detect and characterize individual agents is just beginning, but has already opened up new avenues to reassess their disease burden, examine their molecular epidemiology, and consider new directions for their prevention and control through vaccination, improvements in food and water quality and sanitary practices.

Adenoviruses, Human↗
PubMed2000

The epidemiology of enteric caliciviruses from humans: a reassessment using new diagnostics.

In the United States, acute gastroenteritis is one of the most commonly noted illnesses on hospital discharge records and death certificates, yet few of these cases have an etiologic diagnosis. The application of new molecular diagnostic methods has shown caliciviruses (previously referred to as the Norwalk family of viruses or small round structured viruses) to be the most common cause of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) outbreaks in the United States, and they may emerge as a common cause of sporadic cases of AGE among both children and adults. Novel molecular methods have permitted outbreak strains to be traced back to their common source and have led to the first identification of virus in implicated vehicles of infection-water, shellfish, and foods contaminated both at their source and by food handlers. The broad application of these methods to routine diagnosis in hospitals and public health laboratories is advancing our appreciation of the full burden of calicivirus-associated diarrhea, and it is opening new avenues for its prevention and control.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1991

[Sebastian Fey, Zuben and Erlen (Thurgau), 1791-1825].

Sebastian Fey (1791-1825) was a young veterinarian of the Swiss canton of Thurgau (founded 1803). He had first made an apprenticeship as a country veterinarian, and his educational background was very modest. But his zealousness to come out of the darknesses of empirical veterinary medicine was very strong. With a cantonal scholarship, he managed to spend a year (1813/14) at the Vienna Veterinary School. He was one of the first members of the Swiss Veterinary Association founded 1813, and published a series of papers in the early volumes of its Schweizer Archiv für Tierheilkunde, on from 1816. He also had two monographs printed in Constance publishing houses. In the second of them, he confirmed and defended the statements of Skellett, a British pioneer of foetotomy in cattle.

History, 19th Century↗
PubMed1986

Canine distemper virus clearance in chronic inflammatory demyelination.

The distribution of canine distemper virus (CDV) antigen was examined in the brains of 14 dogs with chronic nervous distemper using a monoclonal antibody against a major viral protein. In ten of these dogs, neutralizing anti-CDV antibody titers were determined in serum and unconcentrated cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). In 19% of the inflammatory demyelinating lesions, large amounts of CDV antigen were found; in 34% of these lesions only residual traces of virus were seen and in almost half of the lesions (47%) no CDV could be demonstrated. In four dogs neutralizing antibodies were found in the serum only; in one dog in the CSF only and in 5 dogs both in serum and CSF. Because of the correlation between the presence of inflammation, intrathecal antiviral antibodies and disappearance of CDV from the lesions, it was concluded that the inflammatory response in distemper is associated with viral clearance from the lesions. Associated immune-mediated cytotoxic reactions could explain exacerbation of the initial virus-induced demyelinating lesions. Despite the presence of an apparently effective intrathecal antiviral immune response, fresh non-inflammatory lesions as a result of viral replication and spread in the white matter coexisted with inflammatory ones in which viral clearance had taken place. The role and mechanism of such virus persistence are discussed.

Animals↗
PubMed1985

Immunocytochemical studies in canine neuroectodermal brain tumors.

Seventy-four canine neuroectodermal tumors were examined immunocytochemically for the presence of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). Eleven oligodendrogliomas were examined for the presence of myelin basic protein (MBP) and myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG). Twenty-three tumors, including ten astrocytomas, one ependymoma, two glioblastomas, one case of gliomatosis, and nine poorly differentiated gliomas were positive for GFAP. Two astrocytomas, eleven oligodendrogliomas, eight ependymomas, four choroid plexus papillomas, two medulloblastomas, one glioblastoma, nine poorly differentiated gliomas, six cases of gliomatosis, and three unclassified tumors were GFAP-negative. In six tumors (including four that were classified as astrocytoma) GFAP staining was equivocal. All oligodendrogliomas were MBP-negative but three expressed MAG. It was concluded that many canine gliomas are not only morphologically but also immunocytochemically similar to human gliomas, but that a larger proportion of canine neuroectodermal growths are undifferentiated tumors.

Animals↗