In addition to the bloodborne pathogens (BBPs) — human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis B and C viruses (HBV and HCV) — other viruses of concern in the dental office include rubella, mumps and measles viruses; the herpes viruses (herpes simplex virus [HSV] types 1 and 2, varicella-zoster, Epstein-Barr virus [EBV], cytomega lovirus and human herpes virus 6); human papilloma viruses; ad...

THE importance of infectious hepatitis as a world-wide problem has been highlighted in detail during the presentations made at this symposium. It is clear that as of today (May I 8, I968) there is no published report confirming the isolation of infectious hepatitis virus in a tissue-culture system or animal host. Experience with poliomyelitis, measles, and rubella has revealed that the time int...

We collected acute-phase and convalescent-phase serum samples from Brazilian patients who presented with exanthem of unknown origin and evaluated these samples by means of an immunoblot assay for seroconversion to human herpesvirus 6 (HIV-6) or human herpesvirus 7 (HIV-7). Measles or rubella had been clinically diagnosed in all these patients, but their sera were negative for antibodies to both...

Rubella contracted in early pregnancy is associated with a high frequency of congenital anomalies in the infant. Viral transmission occurs in overt as well as occult maternal illness with or without a rise in maternal rubella antibody titres. It is thus both difficult and important to determine whether the fetus has become infected in utero. One approach is to isolate rubella virus from amnioti...

OBJECTIVE To determine the seroprevalence rates of IgG to common TORCH agents in pregnant Saudi women using indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. SUBJECTS AND METHODS A total of 926 samples of sera were tested for antibodies to TORCH agents known to cause serious congenital infections: Toxoplasma gondii, rubella, cytomegalovirus (CMV), herpes simplex viruses (HSV-1 and HSV-2), varicella...

G. L. Stewart et al. (New Engl. J. Med. 276: 554, 1967) described the discovery of rubella hemagglutinin (HA) and recommended that it be stored at -70 C. Subsequently, it was reported (Halonen et al., Proc. Soc. Exptl. Biol. Med. 125:162, 1967) that alkali-extracted HA antigen is stable for several weeks at 4 C and -70 C and overnight at 36 C. Before attempting to produce rubella HA antigen in ...

Developments in the United Kingdom national external quality assessment scheme for virology are described. There are about 198 participants (170 in the UK) who are enrolled for examination of any or all of five categories of specimen (distribution types). These are detection of rubella antibody (128 UK participants), detection of hepatitis B surface antigen (130 UK participants), general virus ...

OBJECTIVES To determine the seroprevalence of rubella virus infection among antenatal patients aged between 15 and 45 years in the Western Cape province of South Africa, in order to provide data to determine the need for vaccination to protect women of childbearing age. DESIGN A cross-sectional study. Setting. Virology laboratory, Groote Schuur Hospital, National Health Laboratory Service (NH...

A nested set of 11 overlapping synthetic peptides covering the entire sequence of rubella virus capsid protein was synthesized, purified, and tested against human rubella virus-specific T-cell lines and rubella virus-seropositive sera. T-cell lines derived from four donors responded strongly to four synthetic peptides containing residues 96 to 123, 119 to 152, 205 to 233, and 255 to 280. Only o...

Seroepidemiological investigations were done during the study of viral encephalitis in and around Karachi, Pakistan. Serum and /or cerebrospinaF fluid (CSF) from 352 persons (72 patients with encephalitis, 199 patients without neurological disease and 81 healthy volunteers) were collected during the period from June, 1983 to March, 1984. Of 72 encephalitis patients, serum antibody positivity ra...