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The authors made a short review of literature on phaeohyphomycosis and described the first case of this disease in the USSR. It was diagnosed on the basis of mycological investigation. This type of investigation was recommended for patients at risk of developing opportunistic infections.
We have conducted a cross-cultural (USA and USSR) comparison of thermal biofeedback (TBF) and autogenic training (AT) to a self-relaxation control condition in 59 unmedicated males with mild hypertension. Identical assessment and treatment protocols were carried out in both settings (Albany, New York, and Moscow). Treatments were delivered in small groups on an outpatient basis twice per week for 10 weeks. Results showed comparable, significant (p less than .05), short-term decreases (M = 8.5 mm Hg) in diastolic blood pressure (DBP) for both treatments at both sites. However, the Soviet patients, starting with significantly (p less than .01) higher systolic blood pressures (SBPs), showed significant decreases (M = 12.8 mm Hg) in SBP, whereas the American patients did not change appreciably (M = 4.6 mm Hg). During follow-up, the treated Soviet patients showed significantly (p less than .05) better maintenance of treatment effects, from 3 months to 1 year, than did the American patients. At 1 year, 75% of the treated Soviet patients had DBPs less than 90 mm Hg, whereas only 24% of the American patients had comparable DBPs.
Early in November 1977, several outbreaks of influenza were reported in the far eastern region of the USSR. The epidemic spread rapidly throughout the country affecting mainly people under the age of 20 years. Most of the strains of virus isolated were found to be influenza A subtype H1N1. The serological characterization of the strains is described in this paper.
The data on the spread of influenza A and B in the autumn and winter of 1985-1986 are given. Three epidemics caused by all presently circulating viruses, B, A (H3N2) and A (H1N1), were registered in the USSR. Of these, the greatest one was the epidemic of influenza B; morbidity rate among the adult population during this epidemic was at the level with the morbidity rate characteristic of the epidemics registered at the period of 1962-1972, and morbidity rate among children, especially school children, was even higher.
A review of the epidemiology and nonspecific prophylaxis of Q fever in the USSR during 1980-1985 is presented. Attention is paid of the source to infection, the seroprevalence of antibodies to Coxiella burnetii in man and livestock and the possibilities of prophylaxis against Q fever under conditions of mandatory registration of this disease.
For about three years psychotherapy has been introduced as a must for any medical student in the USSR. The author describes the policies behind this important step, its implementation, and first effects in detail. Psychotherapeutical services for the hospitalized, for crisis intervention, ambulant teams, its significance for surgery, and the delivery of psychotherapeutical short term programs in spas are described. The significance of psychotherapeutical work as a link between the specialized medical branches is stressed.
The paper describes the most important investigations aimed at the preparation and examination of enzymes from microorganisms which have been recently carried out in the USSR. It discusses selected theoretical studies of the regulation of the enzyme synthesis by microorganisms. The paper presents data on the properties of certain enzymes which are of practical importance for different branches of people's economy and public health.
The article is the first in a series of joint publications relating to work carried out in the USSR and GDR in studying possible carcinogenicity of alimentary products and pertinent preventive measures to exclude it. It contains brief information on the effect produced by carcinogenic additives in nutritional products upon the cancer involving the gastro-intestinal tract (in workers of meat packing plants and smokehouses). Under discussion is the relation between the disease-incidence and nutritional specificity. Major sources of possible carcinogenicity of alimentary products, such as additions of some dyestuffs, admixtures of some natural substances (cycsdine, thiourea, etc), contaminations of biological origin, with mycotoxins, carcinogens finding their way from the environment and, what is most important caused by specific technology of manufacturing the nutritional product (smoking, direct drying, frying, etc) are considered. The significance of carcinogenic PAH and benzpyrene, nitrose-amines and mycotoxins is discussed. The possibility and the need for determining carcinogenic compounds, of PAH above all, and their technical limitations in alimentary products with a view of preventing cancer of the gastro-intestinal tract are considered.
It can be established that in the USSR during 60 years of Soviet power, but especially in the last 10 years, urology and nephrology can record significant progress and success in scientific research work as well as in practical special care of the population. From a very small speciality nephrology has changed into a comprehansive clinical subject which is constantly developing.
In 1985, a new epidemic variant of influenza virus, A/Berlin/6/85 (H3N2) was isolated which differed antigenically from the reference A/Philippines/2/82 virus. The results of the study of population immunity in adults and children of the USSR and GDR to these virus variants confirm the data on the continuing drift of virus A (H3N2).
The safety, reactogenic properties and antigenic potency of inactivated whole-virion influenza vaccines produced in the USSR were studied on 1,117 schoolchildren in limited coded clinico-immunological observations. Inactivated chromatographic influenza vaccine obtained from strain A/Texas/1/77 (H3N2) and a variant of this vaccine, developed specially for children and obtained from strains A/Texas/1/77 and B/Leningrad/76, were used for immunization. Both preparations were introduced intradermally in a single injection in a volume of 0.1-0.2 ml by means of bi-3 jet injector. The content of hemagglutinin in this volume varied from 3.0 to 8.0 micrograms. Clinico-laboratory investigations demonstrated the safety of mono- and bivalent inactivated whole-virion influenza vaccine administered intradermally in a single injection to children of school age. The vaccines showed low reactogenicity and high antigenic potency in children aged 7-10 and 11-14 years, and the optimal doses of the preparations were selected for children of different age groups. The distinct prophylactic effectiveness of inactivated chemical chromatographic influenza vaccines in children aged 11-14 years was revealed 11 months after immunization, the index of immunological effectiveness being 1.7.
A total of 300 blood serum samples, containing HBsAg and obtained from donors in three regions of the USSR (the RSFSR, the Uzbek SSR and the Moldavian SSR) differing in the level of HBsAg carriership, were studied for the presence of HBeAg and antibodies to this antigen in the passive hemagglutination (PHA) test and in the enzyme immunoassay (EIA). The occurrence of HBeAg was found to depend on the level of HBsAg carriership in the region. Thus, according to the EIA results, in Gorky, Kishinev and Tashkent HBeAg was detected, respectively, in 5.5%, 12.3% and 13.3% of serum samples, the level of HBsAg carriership in these cities being, according to the results of the PHA test, 1.4%, 5.0% and 9.0%. As shown by the results of EIA, the occurrence of HBeAg increased with the rise of the titer of HBsAg, while regarding the occurrence of antibodies to HBeAg the reverse relationship was observed.
The article reviews recent research in the USSR aimed at evaluating methods of disinfecting drinking water and at elucidating the mechanisms involved. The use of chlorine, ozone, and gamma rays is discussed, as are their advantages and disadvantages and their effects on Enterobacteriaceae and on enteroviruses.
The discovery in migrating birds of influenzaviruses and the demonstration of relationships between strains found in man and in birds show the importance of these investigations for influenzavirus ecology. Investigation of birds in the far-east regions of the USSR is particularly important as many of them migrate to South-East Asia and China, the regions from which human influenza pandemics seem to originate. A total of 262 bird sera from these regions were titrated by the HI method with 20 different influenzavirus antigens (5 human, 2 equine, 1 swine, and 12 avian influenzaviruses). Haemagglutination-inhibiting activity was found in 16.8% of the tested sera, most frequently in sera of Anas formosa, Gallinago gallinago, Anas falcata, and Larus crassirostris. HI activity to A/turkey/Wisconsin/66 (Hav6N2) was found in 7.3% of the sera.
A comparative study was made of the virulence of Leishmania tropica major and L. tropica minor, the causal agents of the zoonotic and anthroponotic forms of cutaneous leishmaniasis, from the USSR and their antigenic characteristics were compared with those of other Leishmania species (L. donovani, L. adleri, and promastigotes from Turkmenian reptiles). The virulence of strains of L. t. major was slightly higher than that of strains of L. t. minor. However, the difference in virulence gradually levelled out in successive multiple passages of the strains in hamsters. A comparative serological study of L. t. major and L. t. minor revealed clear antigenic differences between them. The differences between L. t. major, L. t. minor and L. donovani were shown to be equal in degree.
Six avian influenza A viruses isolated in the USSR were characterized antigenically by using specific antisera to the isolated surface subunits of the known reference strains. Three of the viruses, all isolated from the same region, were characterized as A/duck/Ukraine/63 (Hav7 Neq2), and a virus isolated from a crow was of the Hong Kong/68 (H3 N2) type. The remaining two viruses were novel in that they possessed Hav7 Nav2 antigens, a combination that has not previously been reported. It is suggested that these new influenza viruses might have arisen by recombination in nature between the A/duck/Ukraine/63 (Hav7 Neq2) and A/tern/So. Africa/61 (Hav5 Nav2) strains of avian influenza viruses.
A controlled field trial of typhoid vaccines was carried out in the USSR in 1962. It was the fifth and last of a series. Five preparations were tested, the most effective being a heat-killed divalent vaccine prepared from aerated broth culture. The results of a laboratory study of the vaccines were not in complete agreement with the data from the field trial. No correlation was found between the effectiveness of vaccines and the data from laboratory tests as to their potency, and the authors suggest that differences in effectiveness may be due to varying degrees of damage to biological components during the different production processes. The effectiveness is also sensitive to dosage.
This paper describes the results of a study of measles vaccines carried out in the USSR on 866 children aged 12-54 months as part of a WHO-sponsored collaborative programme of investigation on live and killed measles vaccines. The live vaccines studied were Beckenham 20, Enders Edmonston B, Milovanović, Schwarz and Smorodincev. Of these, Beckenham 20 caused the most reaction (as assessed by pyrexia and rash) and Milovanović the least. Antibody responses were highest for Beckenham 20 and Schwarz vaccines and for Enders Edmonston vaccine plus gamma-globulin. A study was also made of the effect of one inoculation of Pfizer (killed) vaccine followed by one of Enders Edmonston B or Smorodincev live vaccine; very few reactions were observed in children vaccinated in this way and the antibody response was good.