Persistence of immunity to poliomyelitis among a southern population that received four doses of OPV 5 to over 15 years before.

The immune status against polioviruses was investigated in a population of 545 students aged 11-20 years residing in the Neapolitan area, who had completed the vaccination cycle with four doses of OPV 5 to over 15 years before. Assuming as unprotected those individuals without detectable neutralizing antibodies at the dilution 1:2, nobody resulted without protection against all types of poliovirus; 0.7% lacked antibodies only against type 1, 0.6% only against type 3 and none against type 2. A very slight decreasing trend was observed for GMT values in function of the distance from the last dose of OPV for polio 1 and 2, but not for polio 3. As expected, GMT values for polio 2 resulted higher than those for polio 1 and both were higher than those for polio 3, when calculated by age groups as well as by distance groups. The last four Italian cases of autochthonous paralytic poliomyelitis, occurred in the period 1981/83, regarded unvaccinated children aged 6 months-2 years, residing in the same geographical area to which the study population belong. In the same area a delay of immunization practices was also ascertained in the recent past. Results of this study confirm that a priority for public health services is to devote their human and economic resources to reduce the vaccination delay more than administrate a further fifth dose of OPV at the age of twelve.

Coming out, being out, and acts of virtue.

We examine three philosophical models for (gay) self-identity: utilitarianism (exemplified by Eichberg), deontologism (Mohr), and individualism (Spinoza). The first two, we argue, overlook the personal and multi-faceted nature of social relations. We argue that the framework of methodological individualism is better suited to deal with the issues of self-identity as they affect questions of whether, when, and how to come out, and being out. This framework suggests that there is no moral principle which could apply universally in regard to being out and that there are common situations in which it is not morally appropriate to come out or to be out at all.