Behaviour does not fully explain the high risk of chronic liver disease in less educated men in Hungary.

BACKGROUND: Hungary has among the highest mortality rates from chronic liver disease (CLD) and cirrhosis in Europe. Usually, conventional behavioural factors are hypothesized as the cause of the high risk of CLD. METHODS: A case-control study was performed with 287 cases and 892 controls to study the relationship between socio-economic and behavioural factors and the risk of CLD. Liver disease was verified by physical examination and blood tests. Blood samples were collected for detecting hepatitis B, C and E virus infection. Information on exposure factors was recorded by the participating physicians and by self-administered questionnaire. Simple regression analysis was used to study the relationship between CLD/cirrhosis and potential risk factors as alcohol intake (amount and source), problem drinking, cigarette smoking, physical activity, viral hepatitis infections, socio-economic factors (education, financial and marital status). Multiple regression analysis was used to identify whether the effect of socio-economic factors is fully mediated by health behaviour (smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity). RESULTS: The univariate analysis showed that heavy alcohol consumption, problem drinking, former and heavy cigarette smoking, single, separated or divorced marital status, bad or very bad perceived financial status and lower education significantly increased the risk of CLD/cirrhosis. The effect of marital status and of education did not change after adjustment for behavioural factors, but the effect of perceived financial status disappeared. CONCLUSIONS: The effect of low socio-economic status on the risk of CLD/cirrhosis is only partially explained by conventional behavioural risk factors in Hungary.

[Prevention of malignant tumors caused by human papilloma virus (HPV) by vaccination and with the methods of classical gynecologic diagnostics]. / A humán papillomavírus (HPV) okozta rosszindulatú daganatok megelozése védooltással es a klasszikus nogyógyászati diagnosztika módszereivel.

The "gold standard" of the gynecologic examinations is even today the classical clinical examination completed with the digital colposcopy, the Pap smears prepared from transport media and histological examination of biopsy material. Without these classical examinations one cannot evaluate the results of the molecular tests detecting papillomaviruses. The majority (70 to 90%) of the primary clinical symptoms caused by papillomaviruses recovers spontaneously. The recovery can be supported by, "imiquimod" (Aldara) which is an immunostimulant-inducing interferon gamma and the production of interleukins, since papillomavirus infection is able to prevent the production of these mediators through its blocking effect to the innate immunity. Prevention is the main aim of the contemporary public health facilitated by the modern gene technology. The tetravalent vaccine (types 6, 11, 16 and 18) is harmless, since no tumor inducing genes are included. The empty capsids are manufactured in yeast cells and purified to a high degree similar to that of hepatitis B vaccine. The tetravalent vaccine is a preventive vaccine. It will be useful for teenagers, who have not acquired yet the most common papillomavirus types. There is intensive research going on in order to create therapeutic vaccines, that might be effective also in people of older age who had acquired certain virus types before vaccination, and may possess clinical symptoms, too. Men are the source of papillomavirus infection of women. Therefore vaccination of both genders will be indicated. The importance of the classical diagnostic procedures will not be diminished even under the umbrella of vaccination, since the preventive efforts were shown to be fully effective, if the clinical examinations, colposcopy, pap smears and biopsies are regularly performed in the patients with clinical symptoms increasing the rate of recovery above 90%. About 13 to 15 subtypes of human papillomaviruses may induce malignant processes. These are also present and most frequent in Hungary both in sexually transmitted infections and in the cancers of head and neck.