The evidence presented by the nine cases described in this paper indicates that primary arteritis of the aorta is a single clinico-pathological entity of which Takayashu's syndrome is a part. Different segments of the aorta may be affected resulting in a variety of symptom complexes. In this series, the mode of presentation was hypertension consequent on renal artery stenosis. Early diagnosis is important and surgical treatment is indicated to relieve the hypertension which carries an immediately serious prognosis.
Sera taken fortnightly from fourteen patients with eosinophilic lung (tropical eosinophilia) were tested by complement fixation with ethanol extracts of Dirofilaria immitis, Ascaris lumbricoides, Toxocara canis, Gnathostoma procyonis, Fasciola gigantica and Dipylidium caninum. Initially, sera from ten patients had high antibody titers with each of the extracts while antibodies were not detected in sera from the other four; after treatment with diethylcarbamazine the high titers decreased. It is concluded that the reactions obtained with these various extracts do not indicate infection with any particular helminth.
Attention is drawn to a number of recently described skin conditions and a number of new treatments which, in the opinion of the writer, warrant more extensive publicity
The author discusses some of the features of the cholera epidemic caused by El Tor vibrios in 1961-62 in the Western Pacific. The disease originated in the Celebes and spread from there to other parts of Indonesia, to Sarawak and, possibly, to Kwangtung. Hong Kong and Macau were most probably infected from Kwangtung. Subsequently the disease reached the Philippines, progressing from Manila southwards to the other islands, whence it invaded British Borneo. The El Tor epidemic did not differ clinically or epidemiologically from other cholera outbreaks observed during the past decade. The disease attacked poor, under-nourished people living under insanitary conditions. It spread along the coastline and, to a limited extent, along inland waterways. The authorities in the affected territories recommended that the quarantine regulations, sanitary measures and treatment methods used against cholera caused by the so-called "true" cholera vibrios be applied also to cholera caused by El Tor vibrios.
In view of the risk of introduction of yellow fever into South-East Asia, comparative studies have been made of yellow fever vaccination in Malayan volunteers with a high prevalence of antibody to related viruses and in volunteers without related antibody. In a previous paper the neutralizing antibody responses of these volunteers were reported. The present paper describes the haemagglutinin-inhibiting (HI) antibody responses of the same groups of volunteers and discusses the relationship of these responses to the neutralizing antibody responses.The HI responses to yellow fever following vaccination closely paralleled the neutralizing antibody responses whether vaccination was subcutaneous or by multiple puncture. Volunteers with a high level of YF HI antibody due to infection with other group B viruses were found to be less likely to show a significant YF HI response than those without antibody. 90% of HI responses could be detected by the 21st day after vaccination.As with neutralizing antibody responses, volunteers given vaccine doses of 50-500 mouse intracerebral LD(50) subcutaneously gave greater responses than those given higher doses.
Although mosquitos of the Anopheles umbrosus group have long been recognized as important vectors of human malaria in Malaya, there have been doubts about the origin of some of the malaria infections found, especially in A. umbrosus and A. letifer. Investigations have accordingly been carried out in the Malayan swamp-forest, in conjunction with laboratory studies, into the nature of malaria infections in wild-caught mosquitos, the biting behaviour of anophelines and the presence of malaria infection in man and animals. The authors conclude from the results reported in this paper that A. umbrosus is a vector of mouse deer malaria and rarely, if ever, transmits primate malaria; that A. letifer transmits both human and mouse deer malaria; and that A. baezai and A. roperi are probably vectors of mouse deer malaria.