Following the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, early outbreak response relied on behavioural interventions. In the USA, local governments implemented restrictions aimed at reducing movements and contacts to limit viral transmission. In Pennsylvania, restrictions closed schools and businesses in the spring of 2020 and interventions eased later through the summer. Here we use passive monitoring of vehicular traffic volume and mobile device-derived visits to points of interest as proxies for movements and contacts in a rural Pennsylvania county. Rural areas have limited health care resources, which magnifies the importance of disease prevention. These data show the lowest levels of movement occurred during the strictest phase of restrictions, indicating high levels of compliance with behavioural intervention. We find that increases in movement correlated with increases in reported SARS-CoV-2 cases 9–18 days later. The methodology used in this study can be adapted to inform outbreak management strategies for other locations and future outbreaks that use behavioural interventions to reduce pathogen transmission.

The purpose of surveys of amoebae or other organisms is the estimation of the carrier rate in a population, that is, of the proportion of persons who carry a given parasite. As a rule, the tests do not infallibly detect the presence of the organism in a known carrier. Thus simple estimation from a single examination of each member of a sample is not applicable.

Phylogenetic analysis was performed on the haemagglutinin and neuraminidase subtype N2 genes of low-pathogenic avian influenza viruses (LPAIVs) detected in Ireland between 2003 and 2007. Nucleotide sequences were compared to previously published sequences from the National Centre for Biotechnology Information. Sequences from viruses of the same subtype isolated in different years were compared to examine the possibility that LPAIVs may have been maintained in Ireland from year to year. All viruses had closest identity with published sequences of European lineage, supporting the conclusion that LPAIVs had been introduced to Ireland by dabbling ducks that had migrated from Europe. The data suggested that different subtypes of virus had been introduced each year. However, there was evidence that some LPAIVs may have been maintained in the sedentary waterfowl population for consecutive seasons. Furthermore, almost identical H6 and H10 sequences with different N types were found in isolates from the same season, suggesting that reassortment had occurred.

This paper gives an abbreviated account of part of a research programme which followed the Aberdeen typhoid outbreak of 1964. Chloramphenicol, the main antibiotic used in treatment, was shown to have a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of between 5 and 2.5 μg./ml. for the S. typhi phage type 34 of the outbreak. The MIC for methacycline was between 2.5 and 2 μg./ml. Whereas the deep and shallow broth techniques used gave similar results with these antibiotics, the MIC for ampicillin, and also cephaloridine, was less in the deep than in the shallow broths.

Serum assays in patients given ampicillin or cephaloridine yielded abnormally high concentrations of both antibiotics when S. typhi phage type 34 was the test organism whereas, with other test organisms, the concentrations were within expectation. These abnormally high values fell within expected values when the sera under investigation had first been heated to 56° C. for 30 min. before assay against the S. typhi of the outbreak.

The findings with ampicillin suggested that dosages given were satisfactory. With cephaloridine the concentrations found in patients' sera seemed to show that twice daily doses of 0.5 g. fell short of adequacy.

Thomas & Van den Ende (1941) and Puck and his collaborators (Puck, Hamburger, Robertson & Hurst, 1945; Puck, Robertson, Wise, Loosli & Lemon, 1946) have shown that the application of small amounts of oil to bedclothes reduces the quantities of dust and bacteria liberated during bedmaking. Joyce Wright in her first investigation (Wright, Cruickshank & Gunn, 1944) found that oiling bedclothes was, consequently, effective in reducing the incidence of cross-infection, but this was not confirmed in her later work (Wright, Begg & Smellie, 1947), or by Krugman & Ward (1951). Barnard (1952), however, has recently shown that cross-infection can possibly arise by interchange of bacteria in blankets during laundering. Oiling of bedclothes may, therefore, be a very useful hygiene measure.

Four outbreaks of food-poisoning are described in which over 100 cases in all of gastro-enteritis occurred, one being fatal. In each outbreak the infecting bacteria were indistinguishable culturally and in serological behaviour from the “G” strain of B. suipestifer.

The reasons are given for following Andrewes and Neave and classifying these as B. suipestifer. (sub-group II).

(1) A number of Dysentery bacilli of the mannite-fermenting type have been isolated from an English asylum.

(2) These bacilli may be divided into two sub-groups, (a) those that do, and (b) those that do not (1) ferment sorbite and (2) form indol in peptone beef broth in six days.

(3) Several attempts to infect a monkey with sorbite-fermenting strains were not successful.

(4) No Dysentery bacilli were found in an examination of a considerable number of flies infesting the surroundings of chronic and acute cases of bacillary dysentery.

My thanks are due to Dr H. de R. Morgan for kindly co-operation in part of this work, to Dr J. C. G. Ledingham for his valuable advice and assistance at all times, and to Dr W. F. Menzies for supplying the material for examination.

Vitamin E-deficient rats, as well as normal and vitamin E-deficient chicks, failed to discriminate between two diets which were identical in all respects except that in one there was a deficiency of vitamin E and in the other there were adequate levels of vitamin E.

Grateful thanks are due to G. Crook for assistance in the care and management of the experimental animals.

The titres of the complement-fixation test and the agglutination test run parallel in rabbit sera, but not in human sera. These facts are explained in connexion with the specificity of complement.

Infant feeds, to be safe, must be free from potentially pathogenic organisms but not necessarily sterile. In-bottle terminal heating is the preferred means of producing such feeds and the advantages and disadvantages of high and low pressure heating methods, including the effect upon the food value of the feeds, are discussed. The safety of a low pressure method in use in Princess Alexandra Hospital, Harlow is described. The choice of method of provision of safe feeds; terminal heating in a central milk kitchen or obtaining a commercial supply should be decided on economic grounds. Hospitals using such commercial supplies, however, should make provision for training mothers in the hypochlorite method of disinfection of bottles and teats and also ensure that their trainee nurses and midwives still receive adequate instruction in the hygiene of feed preparation.

The stability of the biological reagents used in routine immunological procedures is a matter of practical interest to the public health worker, and an attempt has been made in the following research to estimate the period during which the diluted toxin used in the Schick test for the estimation of susceptibility to diphtheria remains potent. In the early days of Schick testing, although Leete (1920) reported that a diluted toxin retained its potency for as long as 5 weeks, it has hitherto been considered inadvisable to use a toxin at a longer interval than 48 hours after it had been diluted to its proper strength. Glenny, Waddington and Pope (1928) and O'Brien, Okell and Parish (1928) have introduced a new diluent consisting of a solution of a combination of crystal borax 57, boric acid 84 and sodium chloride 99 parts. A 1·5 per cent, solution of this mixture is now used as a diluent and has the effect of sustaining the potency of the diluted toxin over a greater period of time. In our work over 400 persons have been tested with toxins made up according to this formula, a comparison being made in each individual between the reactions elicited by an aged toxin, stored for varying periods at room temperature or in the cold room, with those produced by a fresh toxin. Enough toxin was made up at the beginning of the experiment to last over a considerable period of time, samples being sent to us by post periodically together with batches of freshly diluted toxin. The testing of reagents was carried out immediately on receipt, the lower age groups being selected in any series of individuals as being likely to give the largest number of reactors. The actual testing was performed practically throughout by one of us (J. C. J. McEntee) so as to maintain uniformity of technique. Each pair of toxins was controlled by a single injection of inactivated toxin and the results were scrutinised at the 4th and 10th days, a record of the comparative intensities of the positives being made at the same time. The results are recorded in Table I.

This paper presents a summary of the work on Plague carried out in the Bacteriological Section of the Kenya Medical Research Laboratory, during the period August, 1926, to December, 1928, in connection with the preparation of prophylactic plague vaccine. It is divisible under the following sections:

A. Preparation of a vaccine of Haffkine type at Nairobi.

B. Tests on rats of the immunising potency of the vaccine.

C. Notes on the application of plague vaccine for human prophylaxis:

I. Experience in Kenya.

II. Discussion of the relative values of agar-grown and Haffkine's plague vaccines.

D. Notes on bacteriology and serology of Bacillus pestis:

I. Growth in fluid cultures under various conditions, etc.

II. Agglutinating sera and absorption tests.

Studies on the phenol coefficient after the cover-slip method were made on some disinfectants with the addition of different amounts of various organic materials. The results show that the phenol coefficient varies with the nature and amount of the different organic substances added to the disinfectant in question.

A simple modification of Wilson & Blair's medium for the isolation of typhoid and paratyphoid bacilli has been evolved.

1. Instead of the original six ingredients, this modification contains only three, namely, brilliant green, bismuth-ammonium-citrate and sodium sulphite, and may therefore be conveniently termed “B.B.S. medium”.

2. The glucose, sodium phosphate and ferrous sulphate of the original medium are eliminated. The bismuth-ammonium-citrate solution is made without caustic soda.

3. The B.B.S. medium keeps well for several weeks. Deterioration can easily be detected and readily rectified.

4. The inhibitory action towards B. aerogenes is greatly improved in the B.B.S. medium. This is particularly advantageous in countries where this organism is frequently encountered.

5. B. typhosus and B. paratyphosus grow readily. The colonies are sufficiently characteristic and can be picked out early for confirmatory tests.

6. Using B.B.S. medium a complete diagnosis should be possible within 48 hr.

Nasal colonization with Staphylococcus aureus occurred in 18% of babies leaving a maternity unit and had risen to 40% by 6 weeks after birth. S. aureus was first acquired by 34·5% of babies after discharge. Female infants were more likely to be colonized than males. Colonization was not significantly different between babies receiving standard postnatal care and those nursed on the Special Care Baby Unit.

Crystal violet (CV) tests showed that purple-reacting isolates accounted for approximately 60% of strains, whether first detected at hospital discharge or subsequently acquired. Purple-reacting strains, once acquired, were significantly better able to persist than non purple-reacting strains and formed a cumulatively higher proportion of the strains isolated at 6 weeks after birth than at hospital discharge. CV purple-reactions were significantly associated with lysis by phages of groups III and I and non-purple-reactions were significantly associated with lysis by phages of group II and/or 94/96.

Maternity units remain a significant route whereby strains of S. aureus with some characteristics associated with a hospital origin gain access to the community.

Enteric fever occurs in both temperate and tropical countries, and its spread depends mainly on the sanitary conditions prevailing, on the degree of purity of the drinking water, particularly in the country districts where no general water supplies exist, and on the degree of efficiency of the sewage disposal systems.

Good fixation of complement was obtained with the infective virus fraction of the Mahoney Type 1 poliomyelitis virus which had been adapted to suckling mice. The presence of a soluble antigen, specific to Type 1 virus, was also demonstrated but was small in amount.

The infective virus fraction of the suckling mouse adapted MEF1 Type 2 poliomyelitis virus produced as good fixation of complement as did Type 1, but the fixation of complement by the MEF1 soluble antigen was far greater than that obtained with the Mahoney strain.

The author would like to thank Prof. A. Kipps for his interest and encouragement and Miss M. Butchart for her valuable technical assistance. She is also indebted to Dr H. Malherbe of the Poliomyelitis Research Foundation, Johannesburg, for the Type 1 monkey immune serum.