Lancet
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An outbreak of febrile respiratory disease occurred over 11 days among thirteen adults in Nova Scotia, all members of an extended family and their friends. Signs of illness included bradycardia at the same time as fever, palatal petechiae, and rapidly enlarging bilateral pulmonary infiltrates. Ten of the patients had a four-fold rise in antibody to phase-2 Q-fever antigen as determined by complement fixation on acute and 4-week-convalescent serum samples. ⋯ Investigations showed that the illness related to having entered the home of four of the patients on 1 of 2 consecutive days. On the first day the family cat, subsequently found to have antibody to Q fever, gave birth to kittens which she nursed in a basket kept inside the entry way. Q fever has been associated with parturient cattle, sheep, and goats but family pets, particularly cats, have not previously been implicated in human illness.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Randomised comparative study of mefloquine, qinghaosu, and pyrimethamine-sulfadoxine in patients with falciparum malaria.
A prospective trial in 80 patients randomly allocated to four antimalarial treatment regimens--mefloquine plus pyrimethamine-sulfadoxine ('Fansidar'); mefloquine plus qinghaosu; mefloquine, fansidar, and qinghaosu; and qinghaosu alone--was carried out on Hainan Island, China, in patients with chloroquine-resistant falciparum malaria. A radical cure with slight side-effects was obtained with mefloquine plus fansidar; the addition of qinghaosu greatly increased the rate of parasite clearance with no additional side-effects. ⋯ These antimalarial drugs seem to act at different stages of the asexual parasite cycle and their most efficient use may depend on when in the course of the disease they are given. Because of the continuing appearance of drug-resistant strains of Plasmodium falciparum combination drug therapy is now indicated, but which drugs and how best they should be used remains to be decided.