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Rapidly changing environments and an increase in human movement around the globe have contributed to a rise in new and emerging diseases, many of which are arthropod borne. The threat posed to the United Kingdom by such diseases is uncertain, and there is a real need to understand the distribution, seasonality and behaviour of potential vectors in the country. At present, there is no standard method for routine mosquito surveillance in the UK. Here we compared the catching efficiency of two carbon dioxide-baited traps, the CDC light trap and the MosquitoMagnet Pro trap, for collecting British mosquitoes. Two of each type of trap were operated at four sites in central and southern England from June to September, 2003. To determine whether trap height affected collections, three light traps were operated at 1, 2.5 and 5 m above the ground in one site in 2004. Both types of trap were efficient at catching mosquitoes, collecting 5414 mosquitoes of 16 species. MosquitoMagnet traps caught 2.7 times more mosquitoes than CDC light traps (P<0.001) and a wider range of species (16 species vs 11) than CDC light traps. Four to six times more female Culex pipiens s.l. were collected in light traps at 5 m (P<0.001) compared with traps at lower heights. MosquitoMagnet traps ran continuously for up to 8 weeks, whilst the battery of a CDC light trap had to be replaced every 24 hrs. Although MosquitoMagnets collected more specimens and a greater range of mosquito species, they were considerably more expensive, prone to breakdown and incurred higher running costs than the CDC light traps. MosquitoMagnets are useful tools for collecting mosquitoes during longitudinal surveys during the summer months, whilst CDC light traps are to be preferred for rapid assessments of the presence or absence of mosquitoes, particularly the important species Culex pipiens.

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The already inadequate health systems of sub-Saharan Africa have been badly damaged by the emigration of their health professionals, a process in which the UK has played a prominent part. In 2005, there are special opportunities for the UK to take the lead in addressing that damage, and in focusing the attention of the G8 on the wider problems of health-professional migration from poor to rich countries. We suggest some practical measures to these ends. These include action the UK could take on its own, with the African countries most affected, and with other developed countries and WHO.

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Collagenase treatment of cartilage serves as an in vitro model of the pathological collagen degradation that occurs in the disease osteoarthritis (OA). Fourier transform infrared imaging spectroscopic (FT-IRIS) analysis of collagenase-treated cartilage is performed to elucidate the molecular origin of the spectral changes previously found at the articular surface of human OA cartilage. Bovine cartilage explants are treated with 0.1% collagenase for 0, 15, or 30 min. In situ collagen cleavage is assessed using immunofluorescent staining with an antibody specific for broken type II collagen. The FT-IRIS analysis of the control and treated specimens mirrors the differences previously found between normal and OA cartilage using an infrared fiber optic probe (IFOP). With collagenase treatment, the amide II/1338 cm(-1) area ratio increases while the 1238 cm(-1)/1227 cm(-1) peak ratio decreases. In addition, polarized FT-IRIS demonstrates a more random orientation of the collagen fibrils that correlate spatially with the immunofluorescent-determined regions of broken type II collagen. We can therefore conclude that the spectral changes observed in the collagenase-treated cartilage, and similarly in OA cartilage, arise from changes in collagen structure. These findings support the use of mid-infrared spectral analysis, in particular the minimally invasive IFOP, as potential techniques for the diagnosis and management of degenerative joint diseases such as osteoarthritis.

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A preliminary investigation into the diagnostic potential of an infrared fiber optic probe (IFOP) for evaluating degenerative human articular cartilage is described. Twelve arthritic human tibial plateaus obtained during arthroplasty were analyzed using the IFOP. Infrared spectra were obtained from IFOP contact with articular surface sites visually graded normal or degraded (Collins Scale grade 1 and grade 3, respectively). Comparisons of infrared spectral parameters (peak heights and areas) were made to elucidate spectral indicators of surface degeneration. IFOP spectral analysis revealed subtle but consistent changes between grades 1 and 3 sites. Infrared absorbance bands arising from type II collagen were observed to change with degradation. More degraded tissues exhibited increased amide II (1590-1480 cm(-1))/1338 cm(-1) area ratio (p=0.034) and decreased 1238/1227 cm(-1) peak ratio (p = 0.017); similar changes were seen with Fourier transform infrared imaging spectroscopy (FT-IRIS) analysis. Grades 1 and 3 cartilage showed consistent spectral differences in the amide II, III, and 1338 cm(-1) regions that are likely related to type II collagen degradation that accompanies cartilage degeneration. These results suggest that it may be possible to monitor subtle changes related to early cartilage degeneration, allowing for IFOP use during arthroscopy for in situ determination of cartilage integrity.

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We compared the cost-effectiveness of different strategies for the control and management of influenza for the elderly populations in three European countries (England and Wales, France, Germany). A "no intervention" scenario was compared with six control strategies: opportunistic vaccination (passive recruitment), comprehensive vaccination programmes (active recruitment), 4 weeks chemoprophylaxis course using neuraminidase inhibitors (NIs), 4 weeks chemoprophylaxis course using ion-channel inhibitors (ICIs), early treatment with NIs, and early treatment with ICIs. Vaccination strategies were the most cost-effective. Chemoprophylaxis strategies were highly expensive even under assumptions of optimal timing. Early treatment strategies with antivirals substantially increased demand for GP services and were more expensive than prevention through vaccination.

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Most cases of hemochromatosis are associated with mutations of the HFE gene on Ch6p. In southern Italy and central Alabama, the percentages of patients with hemochromatosis who have "atypical" HFE genotypes (defined as lack of C282Y homozygosity, C282Y/H63D compound heterozygosity, or H63D homozygosity) are relatively great. A mutation of the transferrin receptor-2 gene (TFR2; exon 6, nt 750 C --> G, replaces TAC with stop signal TAG; Y250X) on Ch7q22 was recently identified in two Sicilian families with HFE mutation-negative hemochromatosis. We wanted to estimate the frequency of this mutation in persons from central Alabama. We evaluated Caucasian hemochromatosis probands with atypical HFE genotypes and African Americans with primary iron overload. We also studied control Caucasians, including persons of southern Italian/Sicilian heritage, and control African Americans. Analysis of genomic DNA was performed using a PCR-sequence-specific priming assay and positive control specimens from Sicilian hemochromatosis subjects heterozygous and homozygous for Y250X. Among Alabama subjects, this allele was not detected in 113 Caucasians, including 21 hemochromatosis probands with atypical HFE genotypes and 92 normal control subjects (including 27 of southern Italian/Sicilian descent). In African Americans, Y250X was not detected in 20 index cases with primary iron overload or in 274 unrelated control subjects. We conclude that Y250X is uncommon in Caucasians with hemochromatosis associated with atypical HFE genotypes, in African Americans with primary iron overload, and in the general Caucasian and African American population subgroups in central Alabama.

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Rapid increases in healthcare costs have led to increased interest in the cost-effectiveness of medical interventions. Coronary artery disease is responsible for a significant share of total healthcare spending, and therefore economic evaluations of medical procedures to treat the condition are potentially very important. We have developed a spreadsheet model as an educational tool that can be used to illustrate cost-effectiveness in the selection of diagnostic pathways (a "work-up" strategy of tests designed to reach a final diagnosis) for coronary artery disease. The model, in Microsoft Excel, is easy to use, requiring no specialist computer knowledge. It is menu-driven and the user navigates the model via a number of on-screen buttons. A data entry screen allows the user to customize the data for the key model parameters, making it possible to take into account location-specific features. The data entry screen also allows the user to undertake sensitivity analysis and rate "what if" scenarios. The model demonstrates how sensitive the cost-effectiveness of different diagnostic pathways is to the pretest probability of disease. This package could also be used as a decision support tool, although it is important to recognize some of its limitations for this purpose.

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Current differences in standards for allocating resources in the UK for, on the one hand, drugs and surgery, and on the other, chronic community and social care and social security lead to significant inequality. Using a case study of hypothetical patients, it can be shown that adoption of new treatments, at high cost, to make marginal improvements in well-being would lead to much greater spending on some patients than on others with similar problems from different causes. Inequality occurs because society tolerates tighter constraints on community and social care and social security than on acute care and drug budgets for new treatments. Resolution of the inequality would involve establishing fairly the resources to increase the welfare of patients with different chronic diseases to some target level of welfare. However, this would make overt the current rationing of community and social services and demonstrate the low levels of welfare of many with chronic diseases. Governments concerned with lower taxation might prefer to avoid exposing such issues.

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This paper argues that the British NHS Reforms (the 'Reforms') set out in Working for Patients [1] largely failed to create a market, to achieve the changes that market forces might have been expected to achieve or to meet the objectives set for the NHS in Working for Patients. It draws on the available literature and the author's experience of work with the NHS during the 6 years after Working for Patients. It is hampered, as are all such reviews of the UK Reforms, by the lack of a detailed and systematic research appraisal of the internal market. Many small changes, resulting from market mechanisms, may have occurred throughout the NHS without being publicized or well documented. But overall, there is little convincing evidence that the Reforms have achieved their goals or met the objectives of the politicians who initiated them. The argument here is necessarily limited by the space available (but see [2] for a detailed analysis of the NHS Reforms). The initial sections of the paper examine the characteristics of markets and market power and the extent to which the NHS Reforms created a market, with health authorities and fund-holders as its buyers. The paper concentrates in particular on health authorities. Later sections then examine the extent to which the Reforms met the objectives set out in Working for Patients.

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OBJECTIVES: This study examined hospital administrators' experiences with the National Practitioner Data Bank. METHODS: One hundred forty-nine rural hospital administrators completed questionnaires assessing their perceptions of the data bank. RESULTS: Nearly 90% of respondents rated the data bank as an important source of information for credentialing. Three percent indicated it had directly affected privileging decisions; 43% and 34%, respectively, believed the costs exceeded or equaled the benefits. Twenty percent reported changes that could decrease disciplinary action reports to the data bank. CONCLUSIONS: While the National Practitioner Data Bank is an important source of information to rural hospitals, it may, affect few credentialing decisions and motivate behavioral changes that could have a paradoxical effect on quality assurance.

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BACKGROUND: There is a clear national mandate to increase the proportion of generalist physicians within the medical community and to increase their numbers within rural and underserved urban locations. Little is known, however, about the geographic and temporal career patterns of family physicians or about how these patterns differ by sex and graduation cohort. METHODS: Using information from a follow-up survey of the University of Washington Family Practice Residency Network, we analyzed the characteristics of 358 graduate physicians and their 493 practices, including data on geographic practice locations. RESULTS: Two thirds of graduates began their practices in urban locations, and one third initially settled in rural communities. Female graduates were much less likely than their male peers to choose rural practice locations. Few physicians left practices after they had practiced in them for 5 or 6 years. The majority of graduates were still in the practice where they started as long as 18 years earlier. CONCLUSIONS: The most important career decision made by the graduate of a family medicine residency involves practice location. Because women are less likely to practice in rural areas, the increasing proportion of women graduating from family practice residencies might presage shortages of rural physicians in the future.

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This study describes how graduates of the University of Washington Family Medicine Residency Network who practice in rural locations differ from their urban counterparts in demographic characteristics, practice organization, practice content and scope of services, and satisfaction. Five hundred and three civilian medical graduates who completed their residencies between 1973 and 1990 responded to a 27-item questionnaire sent in 1992 (84% response rate). Graduates practicing outside the United States in a specialty other than family medicine or for fewer than 20 hours per week in direct patient care were excluded from the main study, leaving 116 rural and 278 urban graduates in the study. Thirty percent of graduates reported practicing in rural counties at the time of the survey. Rural graduates were more likely to be in private and solo practices than urban graduates. Rural graduates spent more time in patient care and on call, performed a broader range of procedures, and were more likely to practice obstetrics than urban graduates. Fewer graduates in rural practice were women. A greater proportion of rural graduates had been defendants in medical malpractice suits. The more independent and isolated private and solo practice settings of rural graduates require more practice management skills and support. Rural graduates' broader scope of practice requires training in a full range of procedures and inpatient care, as well as ambulatory care. Rural communities and hospitals also need to develop more flexible practice opportunities, including salaried and part-time positions, to facilitate recruitment and retention of physicians, especially women.

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Artificial self-purification (depuration) of mussels (Mytilus deulis) was undertaken at three temperatures, under conditions similar to those likely to be experienced in the commercial shellfish industry of the UK. During a 72 h depuration period, samples of mussel flesh were examined for three faecal indicator bacteria, Escherichia coli, Group D faecal streptococci and sulphite-reducing Clostridium spores, and two types of bacteriophage. There was a statistically significant difference in the elimination rate of faecal indicator bacteria compared with the slower rate for both bacteriophages.

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Pathogenic Vibrio species are naturally-occurring bacteria in freshwater and saline aquatic environments. Counts of free-living bacteria in water are generally less than required to induce disease. Increases in number of organisms towards an infective dose can occur as water temperatures rise seasonally followed by growth and concentration of bacteria on higher animals, such as chitinous plankton, or accumulation by shellfish and seafood. Pathogenic Vibrio species must elaborate a series of virulence factors to elicit disease in humans. Activities which predispose diarrhoeal and extraintestinal infections include ingestion of seafood and shellfish and occupational or recreational exposure to natural aquatic environments, especially those above 20 degrees C. Travel to areas endemic for diseases due to pathogenic Vibrio species may be associated with infections. Host risk factors strongly associated with infections are lack of gastric acid and liver disorders. Involvement of pathogenic Vibrio species in cases of diarrhoea should be suspected especially if infection is associated with ingestion of seafood or shellfish, raw or undercooked, in the previous 72 h. Vibrio species should be suspected in any acute infection associated with wounds sustained or exposed in the marine or estuarine environment. Laboratories serving coastal areas where infection due to pathogenic Vibrio species are most likely to occur should consider routine use of TCBS agar and other detection regimens for culture of Vibrio species from faeces, blood and samples from wound and ear infections.

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