Mental and physical distress of field veterinarians during and soon after the 2010 foot and mouth disease outbreak in Miyazaki, Japan.

An outbreak of foot and mouth disease occurred in Miyazaki, Japan, in April 2010, and nearly 290,000 animals were culled to control the disease. This study was conducted to demonstrate the causes and intensity of mental distress felt by the field veterinarians participating in the control programme. A focus group discussion was conducted with ten veterinarians to understand their distress during the outbreak, and a questionnaire to quantify the degree of distress experienced each week was administered to 16 veterinarians. A detailed questionnaire was separately administered to 70 veterinarians six months after the outbreak was controlled, to assess mental distress status and to identify the risk factors for serious mental illness (SMI) using the six-item Kessler scale (K6). Overall, mental distress (mean 3.1) was significantly greater than physical distress (mean 1.9, p < 0.001). The risk factors for mental distress were categorised into three groups: culling, communication with farmers, and gender; each category was qualitatively described. Only two respondents (2.9%) had high K6 scores suggesting SMI. In the final generalised linear models with quasi-Poisson errors, the riskfactorsfor SMI that remained were: disinfecting vehicles (p = 0.01), distress (p <0.001), and increased alcohol consumption (p = 0.057), and a protective factor: participation in culling (p = 0.07), which suggested healthy worker bias. Sensitive individuals had been allocated to non-culling activities during disease control. In conclusion, human resource management was adequate during the outbreak from a public-health perspective. However, monitoring delayed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder is recommended.

[Clinical experiment of gentamicin in patients with urological diseases (author's transl)].

1. Gentamicin was effective in 20 patients out of 25 with urological diseases. 2. Gentamicin was more effective on acute symptoms than on chronicones. 3. No marked side effects were noted. 4. No conclusion was drawn on difference in efficacy of gentamicin by dosage, duration of administration and kinds of organisms in this clinical trial.

A case of metastatic lung cancer healed clinically with an extract from human tubercle bacilli (Maruyama vaccine--SSM).

1) A case of metastatic lung cancer derived from testicle is described which, in spite of continuing growth after the removal of the primary lesion, responded to the sole treatment of Maruyama vaccine (SSM) with completely satisfactory results and showed no recurrence over a period of 4 years. 2) The therapeutic course of the metastatic lung tumors in the present case showed a close correlation with the changes in the peripheral blood lymphocytes count and the alpha-2 globulin level. 3) The course of the response of the metastatic lung foci to the SSM therapy could be summarized as continued increase of tumors in size and number for the first 3 months, followed by shrinking, disappearance, and finally healing.

Combination therapy using 9,3"-di-O-acetyl-midecamycin with beta-lactam antibiotics against Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection.

The combined effect of beta-lactam antibiotics and 9,3"-di-O-acetylmidecamycin were examined in 10 patients diagnosed as having chronic respiratory tract infections and complicated urinary tract infections. Patients were initially treated with 3 to 10 g/day of beta-lactams as intravenous infusions or by oral route for a certain period, after which period they were treated concurrently with 0.3 to 0.9 g/day of 9,3"-di-O-acetylmidecamycin by oral route. Through this combination therapy eradication of P. aeruginosa was obtained in 2 cases and remarkable decrease in another 2 cases out of the 10 cases. This combination therapy was judged to be effective in these 4 cases. Of the remaining cases, P. aeruginosa was eliminated before the start of the combination therapy in 3 cases, and no change in bacterial count was noted after the combination therapy in the other 3 cases.