Natural measles causes prolonged depression of cell-mediated immunity yet little is known as to how the infection influences lymphocyte function. Therefore, we studied the properties and function of lymphocytes during and after measles. The number and proportion of circulating thymus-derived lymphocytes was low during the acute stage of measles, and at this time 37% of these cells showed positi...

Over 70% of individuals acutely infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) develop chronic infection at significant risk of progressive liver fibrosis and subsequent liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Various viral, host, and environmental factors have been reported to affect the natural history of HCV infection such as chronicity in acute phase and disease progression in chronic phase. R...

Animal models are important tools for studies of human disease, but developing these models is a particular challenge with regard to organisms with restricted host ranges, such as the human stomach pathogen Helicobacter pylori. In most cases, H. pylori infects the stomach for many decades before symptoms appear, distinguishing it from many bacterial pathogens that cause acute infection. To mode...

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is transmitted by parenteral, sexual and perinatal routes. While fulminant hepatitis may occur in 1% of cases of symptomatic acute hepatitis, the principal problem of HBV infection is that it may become chronic, classically defined by carriage of HB surface antigens (HBsAg) for more than 6 months. This occurs in only 0.5 to 3% of immunocompetent adults but more frequentl...

The natural history of hepatitis C virus infection is still unclear. This disease has a long clinical latency period and very frequently develops into chronic forms (in 70-80% of cases). Diagnosis of chronic HCV infection can only be based on liver biopsy. Histological scores permit rating disease severity and to compare successive biopsy specimens. Certain clinical peculiarities deserve to be ...

1. Eight rhesus monkeys with experimental poliomyelitis following intrasciatic inoculation of "M.V." virus were used to study the extent of virus spread in the central and peripheral nervous systems and the question of its elimination in the nasal secretions. 2. Tests on nasal secretions collected on absorbent cotton plugs daily and continuously from the moment of inoculation to the end of the ...