BACKGROUND Refugees may arrive for resettlement with asymptomatic parasitic infections, and eosinophilia may be the only clue to the presence of infection. Our aim was to determine the prevalence of eosinophilia and develop a standardized approach to the evaluation of asymptomatic refugees with eosinophilia. METHODS We reviewed the medical records of refugees seen from October 1998 through Ma...

“Routine” serological testing of patients in genitourinary medicine clinics screens for syphilis but not HIV, hepatitis B, or hepatitis C. Viral hepatitis and HIV are transmitted by sexual intercourse. National anonymised data from routine serological tests showed that patients in genitourinary medicine have a higher risk of testing positive for antibodies to HIV than does the general populatio...

Despite progress with diagnostic criteria, the type and timing of laboratory tests used to diagnose infective endocarditis (IE) have not been standardized. This is especially true with serological testing. Patients with suspected IE were evaluated by a standard diagnostic protocol. This protocol mandated an evaluation of the patients according to the modified Duke criteria and used a battery of...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections and HIV-HBV and HCV coinfection are major causes of chronic liver disease worldwide. Testing and diagnosis is the gateway for access to both treatment and prevention services, but there remains a large burden of undiagnosed infection globally. We review the global epidemiology, key challenges in the current...

This laboratory, with a special interest in the serodiagnosis of gonorrhoea, has become active in all aspects of serological testing of animal models as well as humans. Lucas, Chandler, Martin, and Schmale (1971) established the chimpanzee as the first animal model for Neisseria gonorrhoeae. They infected four male chimpanzees with human urethral exudates containing N. gonorrhoeae. Brown, Lucas...

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We previously derived a typology of schizophrenia from a latent class analysis of 447 first-contact non-affective functional psychotic patients from a defined catchment area. Here, using the same sample, we show that the three subtypes, 'neurodevelopmental' (Type A), 'paranoid' (Type B) and 'schizoaffective' (Type C) have different premorbid, phenomenological and treatment response characterist...

Although we may wish it were not so, syphilis, like the poor, will always be with us—at least for the foreseeable future. The levels of both are determined to a large extent, by political instability and socioeconomic deprivation. Overall, the incidence of syphilis is low in Western Europe (approximately 0.3 cases/ 100 000 in England in 1998) although it has reached epidemic proportions in the ...