南方某市部分工厂企业职业噪声危害现状分析

目的 对南方某市部分工厂企业职业噪声危害现状进行分析.方法 随机选择该市37个产生噪声的工业生产行业共84间企业,按《作业场所噪声测量规范》(WS/T69-1996)进行测点选择和测量噪声强度[dB(A)].结果 共对1374个作业点进行噪声测定,噪声强度均值为83.40[dB(A)],作业点噪声强度90[dB(A)]以上占23.22%(n=319),85～89[dB(A)]段占25.47%(n=350),85[dB(A)]以下段占51.31%(n=705);共对37个产生噪声的工业行业进行噪声测定,其中噪声强度均值在79[dB(A)]以下有7个行业,80～84[dB(A)]的有24个行业,85～89[dB(A)]的有6个行业.结论 本次调查的该市职业性噪声企业的作业点噪声强度有48.69%超出了85[dB(A)]的卫生标准要求,这些企业应高度重视对噪声危害的防护,对这些企业采取积极措施进一步加强作业场所噪声的控制和作业人员的个人防护是很有必要的.     

职业暴露对血站员工的危害及预防控制

血站员工由于工作的原因，每天面对和接触大量的不明原因的感染性病原体，尤其是采血护士、实验室人员、体检人员和医疗废物处理人员、供血、成分制备、包装及血液运输人员等。长期接触传染源，有很多难免的危险操作和意外暴露。有调查资料显示，大多数血站员工都有职业暴露的经历。80％的采血护士被针刺伤过，其中包括证实被带HBV利器刺伤者、被带HCV利器刺伤者和被HIV利器刺伤者。有国外数据显示，职业性意外刺伤后感染疾病的可能性分别是HBV6％～30％，HCV3％～10％，HIV0．4％。严峻形势警示：职业暴露正威胁着血站员工。本文就职业暴露对血站员工的危害及预防研究作如下综述。     

Causal explanations of distress and general practitioners' assessments of common mental disorder among Punjabi and English attendees

Background: The literature on the primary care assessment of mental distress among Indian sub-continent origin patients suggests frequent presentations to general practitioner, but rarely for recognisable psychiatric disorders. This study investigates whether cultural variations in patients' causal explanatory models account for cultural variations in the assessment of non-psychotic mental disorders in primary care. Methods In a two-phase survey, 272 Punjabi and 269 English subjects were screened. The second phase was completed by 209 and 180 subjects, respectively. Causal explanatory models were elicited as explanations of two vignette scenarios. One of these emphasised a somatic presentation and the other anxiety symptoms. Psychiatric disorder was assessed by GPs on a Likert scale and by a psychiatrist on the Clinical Interview Schedule. Results Punjabis more commonly expressed medical/somatic and religious beliefs. General practitioners were more likely to assess any subject giving psychological explanations to vignette A and English subjects giving religious explanations to vignette B as having a significant psychiatric disorder. Where medical/somatic explanations of distress were most prevalent in response to the somatic vignette, psychological, religious and work explanations were less prevalent among Punjabis but not among English subjects. Causal explanations did not fully explain cultural differences in assessments. Conclusions General practitioners' assessments and causal explanations are related and influenced by culture, but causal explanations do not fully explain cultural differences in assessments. Accepted: 18 September 2001     

A clinical study of patients with genetically confirmed Huntington's disease from India

Background: Clinical data across the globe especially in genetic diseases like Huntington's disease (HD) is most helpful when collected using standardized formats. This helps in proper comparison of clinical and genetic data. Methods: Herein, we report clinical data on 26 genetically confirmed HD patients from 19 Indian families predominantly from South India. Clinical data and evaluation was performed using standardized formats used by the Huntington Disease Study Group. Results: Adult onset HD was commonest while Juvenile HD (onset <20 years) was observed in 15% of patients. Chorea was the commonest presenting symptom (n=23, 88.5%) while remaining presented with psychiatric symptoms (n=3, 11.5%). Impairment of saccades was observed in 75% of patients. Mean (SD) CAG repeats in the abnormal allele was 48.4 (8.7). Total motor score but not the total behavioral score worsens with duration of symptoms. The functional checklist score correlates with total motor score rather than with duration of symptoms. Conclusions: We detail clinical characteristics in genetically confirmed HD patients from a predominantly South Indian cohort. We observed a slightly higher occurrence of Juvenile HD. Functional disabilities in our patients correlate with worsening of motor rather than behavioral symptoms.     

Treatment of a Patient with Ornithine Transcarbamylase Deficiency with Essential Amino Acids and Sodium Benzoate

A patient with ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency (8-year-old) was treated by protein restriction and oral administration of essential amino acids, arginine and sodium benzoate for 13 months. During the period of therapy, her growth and weight gain were slightly improved. Parameters of nutritional assessments, such as N balance, lymphocyte counts in peripheral blood, serum albumin and urinary 3-methylhistidine were also improved during the therapy.     

The value of community participation in disease surveillance: a case study from Niger

A team of researchers, including one behavioral scientist (S.M.N.) and three epidemiologists (L.Q., O.S. and S.N.) conducted community analyses to assess the social and cultural factors that affect the detection and reporting of disease cases in a surveillance system, using acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance in Niger as a case study. Over a 60-day period in the country, the research team reviewed written field reports and interviewed epidemiologists, nurses, community members and persons in governmental and non-governmental organizations. Overall, we found that the logistical difficulties of travel and communication, which are common in developing countries, constrain the conventional surveillance system that relies on epidemiologists visiting sites to discover and investigate cases, particularly in rural areas. Other challenges include: community members' lack of knowledge about the possible link between a case of paralysis and a dangerous, communicable disease; lack of access to health care, including the low number of clinics and health care workers; cultural beliefs that favor seeking a local healer before consulting a nurse or physician; and health workers' lack of training in AFP surveillance. The quality of surveillance in developing countries can improve if a community-based approach is adopted. Such a system has been used successfully in Niger during smallpox-eradication and guinea worm-control campaigns. In a community-based system, community members receive basic education or more extensive training to motivate and enable them to notify health care staff about possible cases of disease in a timely fashion. Local organizations, local projects and local leaders must be included to ensure the success of such a program. In Niger we found sufficient quantities of this type of social capital, along with enough local experience of past health campaigns, to suggest that a community-based approach can improve the level of comprehensiveness and sensitivity of surveillance.     

Auditory processing in a patient with a unilateral lesion of the inferior colliculus

The role of the inferior colliculus (IC) in human auditory processing is still poorly understood. We report here the results obtained with a 12-year-old boy (FX) who suffered a very circumscribed lesion of the right IC without additional neurological damage. The child underwent an extensive battery of psychophysical hearing tests. Results revealed normal peripheral auditory functioning, bilaterally. Furthermore, masking-level differences and frequency-pattern recognition were normal for each ear. When the right ear was stimulated, behavioural tests assessing central auditory processing yielded normal results. However, when the left ear was stimulated, speech recognition in the presence of a competing ipsilateral signal and duration-pattern recognition were impaired. Similarly, performance on two dichotic speech recognition tests was poor when the target stimulus was presented in the left and the competing signal in the right ear. Finally, sound-source localization in space was deficient for speakers located on the side contralateral to the lesion. The pattern of results suggests that auditory functions such as recognition of low-redundancy speech presented monaurally, recognition of tone duration patterns, binaural separation and integration, as well as sound-source localization in space, depend on the integrity of the bilateral auditory pathways at the IC level.     

Hazard characterization of an anti-human tissue factor antibody by combining results of tissue cross-reactivity studies and distribution of hemorrhagic lesions in monkey toxicity studies

Tissue cross-reactivity (TCR) studies are conducted when developing therapeutic antibodies, but their value is sometimes questioned because the positive organs often do not match the target organs of toxicity. We conducted TCR studies in human and cynomolgus monkey tissues for the development of an anti-human tissue factor antibody (TFAb) and also for a commercially available antibody, to clarify the true distribution of the target antigen. Tissue factor (TF) was found to be distributed in a wide variety of organs and tissues, including the heart and urinary bladder, in human and monkey. Administration of the TFAb to cynomolgus monkey caused hemorrhagic lesions mainly in the heart and urinary bladder in an incidental manner. This was thought to show the physiological role of TF in regulating hemostasis in these organs. Because the distribution of antigen in human and monkey was similar, the possibility that the TFAb would have similar effects in human was judged to be high, and because of the incidental nature of the effects, that they would be difficult to avoid. Thus it was possible to prospectively characterize the hazardous potential of a therapeutic antibody by accurately evaluating the tissue distribution of the target antigen and understanding its biological nature.