[Detection of antirabic antibodies in personnel at risk through the use of the neutralization technique by reducing the number of plaques]. / Detección de anticuerpos antirrábicos en personal de riesgo con el empleo de la técnica de neutralización por reducción del número de placas.

The neutralization technique by reducing the number of plaques (NRNP) for detecting antirabic antibodies in personnel at risk was used. Serum samples from individuals at high risk and from persons with vaccination antecedents and without them were studied. The neutralization technique was compared with the biological technique in mouses and as a result of the study it was obtained a concordance of 100%. It was found that sex does not influence on the response of the antibodies to this virus, although the direct contact and the number of times that the individual has received the vaccine act positively on the immune response. The introduction of this technique in the laboratory allows to have a useful tool for the follow-up of the personnel receiving the vaccine before and after being exposed to the rabies virus.

Role of the virology diagnosis laboratory in the surveillance of rubella virus Cuba 1988/2000.

In Cuba, on the basis of Measles Elimination Program, the incidence of this disease decline, and was necessary to test rubella virus as a possible etiology agent that produce fever and rash illness. To reach this goal, Cuba developed rubella elimination strategies with integrated epidemiologic and laboratory surveillance. In the country, the vaccination program against rubella started in 1982 by vaccinating 12-14 years old females, with a special surveillance program with laboratory study of all suspected cases. Through 1988-2000, the Serology Diagnosis Laboratory in the Virology Branch of Pedro Kouri Institute had the responsibility to do the measles and rubella surveillance and play a key roll in the elimination strategies of these diseases. For confirmation of all suspected cases, 8566 serum samples with the suspected diagnosis of measles or rubella from different provinces in Cuba were studied in the laboratory using different techniques as haemagglutination inhibition test (HIA), ultra micro analytic assay (UMA); and in 1995 by the newly introduced IgM ELISA, which was used taken only one sample in the acute phase of the disease. These techniques allowed knowing that the annual number of reported rubella cases in the country decreased substantially after the implementation, in 1986, of the second vaccine policy, that of vaccinating women of childbearing age. However, in 1989, was detected an outbreak of rubella virus infection that had occurred in young adults male 15-19 age groups in Matanzas' province. The last three indigenous cases of this disease were confirmed by our laboratory in 1995, after national vaccine coverage over 95%.

Presencia de anticuerpos al virus del sarampión en un grupo de pacientes con hemopatías malignas / Presence of measles virus antibodies in a group of patients with malignant hemopathy

225 monosera from patients (121 adults and 104 children) with different malignant haemopathies from the Institute of Hematology were studied. The hemagglutination inhibition (HI) technique and the neutralization technique were used to know the presence of antimeasles antibodies. All these patients were under immunosuppression treatment at the time of taking the specimen and children had received the triple viral vaccine (measles, rubella, parotiditis) before the disease was diagnosed. It was found that 51 (42.14) of the adults' specimens were positive by HI and of the 25 negative specimens that underwent the neutralization technique, 18 (72) proved to be positive. Of the 104 sera corresponding to children, 31 (29.8) specimens were positive by HI, whereas 29 of the negative were studied by neutralization. 18.34 of all the specimens continued to be negative by both methods. According with the 2 techniques used, the presence of measles virus antibodies was of 81.66 in children and of 90.78 in adults.

Detección de anticuerpos antirrábicos en personal de riesgo con el empleo de la técnica de neutralización por reducción del número de placas / Detection of antirabic antibodies in personnel at risk through the use of the neutralization technique by reducing the number of plaques

Se empleó la técnica de neutralización por reducción del número de placas (NRNP) para la detección de anticuerpos antirrábicos en personal de riesgo. Se estudiaron muestras de suero de individuos de alto riesgo y personas con antecedentes de vacunación y sin estos. La técnica de neutralización fue comparada con la prueba biológica en ratón y como resultado del estudio se obtuvo una concordancia de 100 por ciento. Se encontró que el sexo no influye en la respuesta de anticuerpos a este virus, aunque el contacto directo y la cantidad de veces que el individuo ha recibido la vacuna actúan positivamente en la respuesta inmune. La introducción de esta técnica en el laboratorio permite contar con una herramienta útil, en el seguimiento del personal que recibe vacunación preexposición y posexposición al virus rábico