In 1901 Miss Anderson (H.M. Principal Lady Inspector of Factories) and Dr Legge (H.M. Medical Inspector Factories) were instructed by H.M. Chief Inspector of Factories to investigate the conditions of labour in the Tinning of metals and metal articles with a view to the preparation of regulations for the conduct of this industry. Difficulties having arisen in assigning a cause for the plumbism undoubtedly existing among workers, and preparation of regulations appearing impossible without some knowledge of the source of illness, the writer was instructed to assist them experimentally in determining the causes.

1. It has been shown that certain nitrite-destroying organisms when grown along with V. Cholerae prevent the appearance of the cholera-red reaction. This is not due to the non-formation of nitrite, but to its rapid destruction by the enitrite-destroying organisms.

2. Certain nitrite-destroying organisms fail to prevent the cholera-red reaction.

3.It has been shown in the case of the B. dysenteriae (Flexner) that the failur to prevent the cholera-red reaction is due to an inhibition of the growth of both organisms when grown together.

In a prospective survey carried out over 9 months in 1984 in the Department of Bacteriology, Belfast City Hospital, Campylobacter jejuni was isolated from 24 out of 1200 faecal specimens (2%) from patients with acute diarrhoea. This isolation rate is much lower than that from other parts of mainland Britain which report an isolation rate of between 8 and 15%. It is difficult to explain this large discrepancy but the limited availability of unpasteurized milk and the generally worse summer here (fewer barbecues, picnics) may be some reasons to explain this low incidence in N. Ireland.

It is usually accepted that in precipitin reactions a definite quantity of precipitin interacts with a definite quantity of homologous proteid, and further that in ordinary circumstances the interacting quantities combine to give rise to a precipitate, the precipitum. From this it follows that, if a known weight of serum containing precipitin be allowed to react with various weights of homologous proteid and if the quantities of proteid be sufficiently varied, certain reactions will be completed and others will be incomplete. The addition of precipitin and of homologous proteid to the superfluid of each reaction will determine the presence of excess of precipitin or of homologous proteid in such fluid. Conversely, if a known weight of the homologous proteid be allowed to interact with various weights of serum containing precipitin, it will be possible to determine in a similar manner those reactions which have been completed and those in which the homologous proteid or the precipitin is in excess. If the first stated proposition be correct, the results of these two series should coincide. A definite weight of serum containing precipitin should interact with a definite weight of proteid to from the precipitum.

Rates of acquisition and loss of Brugia malayi microfilaraemia were estimated using the parasitological data of a cohort of population in Shertallai, South India. The rate of acquisition of microfilaraemia was found to be dependent on age but not gender. The decline in the rate of acquisition of microfilaraemia in adults above 35 years could be due to the development of acquired immunity. The mean reproductive lifespan for the periodic Brugia malayi adult female worm was estimated to be 34 years and it was independent of host age and gender. The age-specific estimated proportion of population at risk (microfilaria carriers who lost their microfilaria in course of time) of developing lymphoedema approximately mirrored the observed age specific prevalence of lymphoedema in the study-population. On an average, 99% of population at risk developed manifestations of disease. The estimated population at risk of developing disease in different endemic areas is compared and its epidemiological significance is discussed.

A survey of 13 linen chutes in eight hospitals was carried out to assess the amount of bacterial contamination on the inner walls of these chutes. It was shown that the average bacterial count in these chutes was low by general hospital standards (19·7 bacterial colonies per Rodac plate). This concentration was eight times less than the average concentration found on the floor surface at each linen disposal and collection point (153 bacterial colonies per Rodac plate).

Three chutes sampled during the survey were periodically cleaned but appeared to derive only very limited benefits from the cleaning method they used.

Tests carried out on three linen chutes showed that the bacterial surface contamination of a sterilized chute could normally reach a maximum concentration in a period of between 4 and 24 hr.

It is concluded that so long as good engineering practices are used in the construction of linen chutes the bacterial contamination on their inner surface should not contribute to the problem of hospital cross infection. For this reason, and because of the impracticability of sterilizing linen chutes at very short intervals of time, it is considered that cleaning of chutes would serve no practical purpose.

Thanks must be recorded to the authorities of all those hospitals who gave their permission for us to study their linen disposal chutes and afforded us every assistance.

We should also like to thank Mr W. Carson, Leader of the Building Services Research Unit, for his help and encouragement.

The work reported was a part of an investigation into the design of linen disposal chutes sponsored by the Western Regional Hospital Board, Scotland.

Certain difficulties attendant upon bacteriological diagnosis recur constantly in connection with the notification, isolation, and discharge of patients suffering from diphtheria, and from every point of view it becomes increasingly necessary to seek means to minimise, as far as possible, the number of ‘missed’ and ‘carrier’ cases.

Established methods of recruiting population controls for case–control studies in infectious disease outbreak investigations are resource- and time-intensive, and are often subject to bias. The online panel have recently gained interest as an easy and timely method to select controls. We examined the feasibility, suitability and reliability of using an online panel to select controls for case–control studies as part of investigations of diffuse food and waterborne outbreaks. In January 2019, we deployed a web survey by email to the 277 members of a non-probabilistic online panel in Lower Saxony, Germany. We questioned them on basic sociodemographic characteristics and eating habits. They were frequency matched to cases on sex and age. Their food exposures were compared to those of traditionally recruited controls of four historical case–controls studies, which successfully investigated food and waterborne outbreaks. We used logistic regressions to assess the association between the food exposures and the disease (odds ratios). The use of a control panel successfully led to the identification of the food items in three of the four historical outbreak investigations, and their recruitment benefitted from increased speed and limited costs. Timely outbreak investigations would enable rapidly implementing control measures. We recommend the further evaluation of using panellists as controls in parallel case–control studies and case–panel studies.

Seroprevalence estimation using cross-sectional serosurveys can be challenging due to inadequate or unknown biological cut-off limits of detection. In recent years, diagnostic assay cut-offs, fixed assay cut-offs and more flexible approaches as mixture modelling have been proposed to classify biological quantitative measurements into a positive or negative status. Our objective was to estimate the prevalence of anti-HCV antibodies among drug users (DU) in France in 2011 using a biological test performed on dried blood spots (DBS) collected during a cross-sectional serosurvey. However, in 2011, we did not have a cut-off value for DBS. We could not use the values for serum or plasma, knowing that the DBS value was not necessarily the same. Accordingly, we used a method which consisted of applying a two-component mixture model with age-dependent mixing proportions using penalised splines. The component densities were assumed to be log-normally distributed and were estimated in a Bayesian framework. Anti-HCV prevalence among DU was estimated at 43.3% in France and increased with age. Our method allowed us to provide estimates of age-dependent prevalence using DBS without having a specified biological cut-off value.

When a number of persons is exposed to a particular pneumoconiosis-producing dust for the same period under apparently similar conditions, some of them develop the disease while others escape. It is possible that the less easily affected group comprises merely those who by chance or through some inborn or acquired local physical difference, e.g. nose-breathing, receive smaller doses of the noxious dust into the lungs. It is also possible that they are a selected group of peculiar constitutional type. The latter view has been accepted by some authorities and used in practice in selecting entrants to the mining industry, on the ground that by excluding certain anthropometric types the incidence of pneumoconiosis, or of pneumoconiosis complicated by tuberculosis, would thereby be reduced, though no adequate statistical data have so far been published to support this hypothesis.

An isolation policy in a hospital for skin diseases is reported. Patients carrying penicillin- and tetracycline-resistant organisms were to be isolated in single rooms, though barrier nursing was not practised. The policy failed because the single beds rapidly became blocked with long-stay patients and because even in a single-bed unit patients acquired staphylococci within 3–7 days of admission. Patients with skin diseases often do not feel ‘ill’ and resent isolation.

The article aims to estimate and forecast the transmissibility of shigellosis and explore the association of meteorological factors with shigellosis. The mathematical model named Susceptible–Exposed–Symptomatic/Asymptomatic–Recovered–Water/Food (SEIARW) was used to explore the feature of shigellosis transmission based on the data of Wuhan City, China, from 2005 to 2017. The study applied effective reproduction number (Reff) to estimate the transmissibility. Daily meteorological data from 2008 to 2017 were used to determine Spearman's correlation with reported new cases and Reff. The SEIARW model fit the data well (χ2 = 0.00046, p > 0.999). The simulation results showed that the reservoir-to-person transmission of the shigellosis route has been interrupted. The Reff would be reduced to a transmission threshold of 1.00 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.82–1.19) in 2035. Reducing the infectious period to 11.25 days would also decrease the value of Reff to 0.99. There was a significant correlation between new cases of shigellosis and atmospheric pressure, temperature, wind speed and sun hours per day. The correlation coefficients, although statistically significant, were very low (<0.3). In Wuhan, China, the main transmission pattern of shigellosis is person-to-person. Meteorological factors, especially daily atmospheric pressure and temperature, may influence the epidemic of shigellosis.

1. Meningococcal cerebrospinal meningitis in the Sudan does not materially differ in its progress and end result from the disease as found in Europe.

2. There is no racial peculiarity in response to infection or to chemotherapy.

3. There is no sex or age peculiarity in incidence. Both sexes and all ages respond to chemotherapy.

4. Sulphapyridine is superior to sulphanilamide in the shortening of invalidism and in the prevention of complications.

5. Oral administration of sulphapyridine is in the majority of cases as effective as intramuscular.

6. Dosage is related to the clinical stage of the disease, and to its duration before treatment. An initial dose of 2·5 g. sulphapyridine for adults, and 1·0—1·5 g. for children is prescribed for the serious case, with subsequent gradation of treatment to provide a maintenance dose.

7. Treatment, if it is going to give a good result, will produce a response within 24 hr. It need not be prolonged beyond 7 days. The third, fourth and seventh days of treatment are critical.

Denmark hosted four games during the 2020 UEFA European championships (EC2020). After declining positive SARS-CoV-2 test rates in Denmark, a rise occurred during and after the tournament, concomitant with the replacement of the dominant Alpha lineage (B.1.1.7) by the Delta lineage (B.1.617.2), increasing vaccination rates and cessation of several restrictions. A cohort study including 33 227 cases was conducted from 30 May to 25 July 2021, 14 days before and after the EC2020. Included was a nested cohort with event information from big-screen events and matches at the Danish national stadium, Parken (DNSP) in Copenhagen, held from 12 June to 28 June 2021. Information from whole-genome sequencing, contact tracing and Danish registries was collected. Case–case connections were used to establish transmission trees. Cases infected on match days were compared to cases not infected on match days as a reference. The crude incidence rate ratio (IRR) of transmissions was 1.55, corresponding to 584 (1.76%) cases attributable to EC2020 celebrations. The IRR adjusted for covariates was lower (IRR 1.41) but still significant, and also pointed to a reduced number of transmissions from fully vaccinated cases (IRR 0.59). These data support the hypothesis that the EC2020 celebrations contributed to the rise of cases in Denmark in the early summer of 2021.

The want of success which has so persistently attended the efforts of most bacteriologists to isolate the B. typhosus from water supplies suspected to have caused enteric fever, suggested a study of the varieties of B. coli which are associated with the B. typhosus in the dejecta of patients suffering from enteric fever. It was hoped that the organisms in question might show cultural characteristics or reactions to specific sera, which would enable them to be distinguished from the varieties of B. coli present in the dejecta of healthy people; so that even if the B. typhosus were not detected, the presence of these special organisms might afford reasonable grounds for the belief that the water under examination had been fouled by the specific dejecta of cases of enteric fever. With this object in view 150 organisms have been examined; of these 80 were isolated from the stools of cases of enteric fever and 70 from the stools of healthy men. The enteric fever cases were five in number, one being a severe relapse, and the other four severe cases which terminated fatally. The stools were obtained during the third and fourth weeks of the disease and also, in the fatal cases, from the intestines after death had occurred.

The aim of the study was to develop a procedure to remove spatial trends in irregularly spaced data, with trends partly due to regional differences. Median polish is often used on regularly spaced (lattice) data where column and row medians are removed. For irregularly spaced data a low-resolution map of the spatial locations is often used where data locations are assigned to the nearest lattice node followed by median polish. In this study regional polish was developed. The inverse distance weighted median was calculated based on observations from locations in the neighbourhood of the actual observation. The regional polish residual is obtained as the difference between the observed value and the weighted median. The regional polish procedure was applied to Salmonella Dublin data showing strong regional trends. Estimation of the range of influence between cattle herds with positive S. Dublin herd status was considerably improved with a stable parameter estimate and reduced standard error.