[Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis associated with herpes virus infection: a case report]. / Encéphalomyélite aiguë disséminée associée à une infection à herpes virus: à propos d'une observation.

Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) is a demyelinating disease of the central nervous system, also called post-infectious encephalitis; it is triggered by an autoimmune mechanism and follows an infection or a vaccination after a free interval of 2 to 30 days. We report a case of ADEM in a 4-year-old girl, who was diagnosed based on the data from a brain MRI, which revealed multiple demyelinization foci in the periventricular white matter, the semi-oval centers, and the thalamic regions, both bilaterally and symmetrically. The clinical course was characterized by complete recovery 10 days after steroid therapy. In the literature, more than the half of the patients treated for ADEM had a good prognosis, with recovery and no sequelae. Clinical improvement is generally noted in the hours or days following the initiation of treatment. However, in the most severe cases of ADEM, the most frequent neurological sequelae consist in focal deficiencies of the limbs and ataxia or visual disorders. Cognitive and behavioral disorders are noted in 6 to 50% of pediatric patients.

Effects of nutritional factors on production of tabtoxin, a phytotoxin, by Pseudomonas syringae pv. tabaci.

Pseudomonas syringae pv. tabaci, the causal agent of the wildfire of tobacco, produces the phytotoxin tabtoxin. The effects of carbon, nitrogen sources and amino acids on growth and tabtoxin production by pv. tabaci, were examined by varying the components of a defined basal medium, which contained the following nutrients per liter: sucrose (10 g), KNO3 (5 g), MgSO(4).7H2O (0.2 g), CaCl(2).2H2O (0.11 g), FeSO(4).7H2O (20 mg), NaH2PO(4).2H2O (0.9 g) and H2PO(4).3HO (1 g). Bacterial growth was determined by cell density, and tabtoxin production was measured by the E. coli bioassay technique. Both growth and quantity of tabtoxin synthesized were significantly affected by carbon source, nitrogen source and amino acid supplements. Sorbitol, xylose and sucrose proved to be the best carbon sources for tabtoxin production. Specific toxin production was very low using glucose as a single carbohydrate source, although bacterial growth was well supported by glucose. Amount and type of nitrogen sources (NH4Cl or KNO3) affected the growth of pv. tabaci and quantities of tabtoxin produced. Nitrate was the best of these two forms of nitrogen for production of tabtoxin. Adding threonine to pv. tabaci grown in batch culture decreased the amount of tabtoxin production. Similar results were obtained with lysine, whereas, serine had no effects on quantities of tabtoxin production. The results of the present study were to formulate a medium which allowed for enhanced tabtoxin production by Pseudomonas syringae pv. tabaci.

The physiological development of the chlorotic lesion induced by coronatine.

Toxins are secondary metabolites produced by several plant pathogenic microorganisms. These toxins play a major role in the development of disease symptoms. Coronatine, the non specific toxin, was extracted and purified from the culture medium of Pseudomonas syringae pv. glycinea. In this study, the effect of coronatine on the development of the chlorotic lesion on the Phaseolus vulgaris L. leaves, indicates that coronatine induced chlorosis on treated leaves as well as or untreated leaves on the same plant. An other effect of this toxin is the reduction of amount of both chlorophyll a and b. These results, provide that the development of chlorotic lesion is a primarily mode of action of coronatine.

[Acute drug poisonings in children in a general pediatric service (epidemiologic profile)]. / Intoxications médicamenteuses aiguës chez l'enfant dans un service de pédiatrie générale (Profil epidémiologique).

Acute drug poisonings of the child is a major problem for health authorities all over the world, and are responsible for serious morbidity with mortality risks. The present retrospective study has involved 150 cases of drug poisoning observed in the Casablanca children's hospital over a period of 7 years. Most intoxication cases are accidental (84%), (mostly in children of 1 to 5 years old 74.6%), willful (11.3%), or iatrogenic (4.7%). Happening most often at home (95%) with a high frequency between 5 and 6 p.m. (24%) and 11 a 12 p.m. (13.3%), time of strong hunger. The large majority of drugs wer psychotropic agents (56%), principally diazepins (39%). Followed by oral contraceptive (8%), antihistaminics (8%), analgesics (7%), antibiotics (4%) and others (11%). Prevention is of high importance, and must be made effective on the wildest scale.

Epidemiology of human visceral leishmaniasis in Taounate, a northern province of Morocco.

We report the preliminary results of an epidemiological survey carried out in the locality of Ouled Hcein, province of Taounate (North Morocco) around one visceral leishmaniasis infant case. The strain isolated from the child was characterized by three methods as Leishmania infantum and its isoenzyme pattern was indistinguishable from zymodeme MON-1. The human survey in the locality of origin of the index case did not show any additional case and the serology was negative for the whole people sampled. The canine survey showed that the highest seroprevalence of the canine disease was found in the locality of Ouled Hcein (27.1%) when compared to 4 surrounding localities. The entomological survey showed that amongst the demonstrated L. infantum vectors around the Mediterranean Basin, Phlebotomus longicuspis was the predominant species. Furthermore, the survey led to the identification of one female of P. ariasi naturally infected with L. infantum, so this species should be at least one of the vectors of this parasite in this area. Thus, this study confirms that the transmission cycle of L. infantum in North Morocco is similar to the cycle found in the remaining Mediterranean area.