Coxsackie B virus infection and myopericarditis in Thailand, 1987-1989.

Serum specimens of 363 myopericarditis patients from the hospital all over the country were examined for coxsackie B virus antibody during 1987-1989 by means of microneutralization test in order to assess association between myopericarditis and coxsackie B virus infection. The data established that certain virus infection rates were 24.3%, 19.4% and 23.6% respectively, no differences in incidence were found between sex (p > 0.05) and the incidence rate between age groups below 15 years and 15 years and older was significantly different (p < 0.05). It was found that the epidemic happened throughout the year and the most common serotype in 1987 and 1989 was B4 whereas in 1988 it was B3.

Diagnosis of perinatal HIV-1 infection by in-house PCR.

A study on how to apply PCR as a diagnostic test for the infants born to HIV-1 infected mothers is described. All steps including clinical care, blood sampling, specimen processing and PCR analysis were carried out using native facilities and personnel. An open cohort of 130 children was evaluated at birth, 1, 6, 9, 15, and 18 months of age. Definite infection status was assessed by clinical and serological data during an 18 months of follow up period. PCR results were reported as positive or negative when at least 2 concordant data were denoted. This in-house PCR, compared to known infection status, gave 100% sensitivity and 94.4% specificity within 6 months after birth. On the other hand, clinical diagnosis could identify only the infected infants at 9 months of age. The HIV-1 transmission rate from mother to infant was 23.2%. Though this PCR was not at an optimal level of specificity, it was still beneficial to identify uninfected infants in the first year of their lives and avoid unnecessary medical care. Here, we report an in-house PCR that offers good performance at low cost for the diagnosis of HIV-1 vertical transmission.

Detection of 27-32 nm virus-like particles in stools of non-A, non-B hepatitis patients in Thailand by immunoelectron microscopy.

A total of 142 sporadic cases of viral hepatitis in Thailand were tested for HAV and HBV infections. Thirty nine and 58 cases were serologically found to be associated with HAV and HBV infections, respectively. The remaining 45 cases were unrelated to infection by HAV or HBV. In nine of these cases, we detected 27-32 nm virus-like particles in stools by immunoelectron microscopy using a reference serum of enterically transmitted non-A, non-B hepatitis (Fausta 3/87). This finding implies that enterically transmitted non-A, non-B hepatitis is prevalent also in Thailand.