Handwashing quality: impact of a special program.

To evaluate the impact of a program on basic handwashing quality, a before-after audit was performed in a university hospital. We defined a 13-step protocol to describe a proper basic handwash (BHW). The proportion of BHW that satisfied this checklist increased significantly, from 4.2% before the program to 18.6% after, but these low proportions suggest that simpler alternatives to BHW should be studied.

[Indirect ELISA technic for detection of human rotavirus in faeces (author's transl)]. / Technique ELISA indirecte pour la détection du rotavirus humain dans les selles.

A relatively simple indirect ELISA technic is described for detection of human Rotavirus in faeces. 329 faeces from children diarrhoea had been tested and Rotavirus were found in 30% cases.

[Immunofluorescence study of bacteriuria. A new technic for the localization of urinary infection]. / Etude en immunofluorescence de la bactériurie. Nouvelle technique de localisation de l'infection urinaire

The detection by immunofluorescence of immunoglobulins fixed to the wall of urinary bacteria makes it possible to localise the site of the urinary infection. The presence of immunoglobulins was noted in 18 out of 19 patients with a high urinary tract infection involving the renal parenchyma. They were absent in 25 out of 28 subjects with a lower urinary tract infection. The three apparently discordant positive reaction involved 1 case of prostatitis and two cases in which the diagnosis of pyelonephritis was made later. In the case of renal involvement, these immunoglobulins, essentially IgG, are seen with greater frequency than humoral antibodies. Whilst the biological significance of these immunoglobulins remains uncertain, their existence probably being a reflection of parenchymatous inflammation, this nevertheless is a new and, apparently, reliable, method for the determination of the site of an infective process.