Dengue fever (DF) is a major public health concern in the Dominican Republic. In recent years, several epidemics of DF have been reported to the Pan American Health Office (PAHO), but the extent of the epidemics has not been clearly understood yet. Therefore, we conducted a nationwide seroepidemiology of dengue (DEN) infection. At the same time, we conducted an interview survey to assess public awareness regarding the disease. The serum samples were collected at seven main cities in the Dominican Republic and screened for DEN antibody with a commercial ELISA kit. A total of 2007 serum specimens were examined. The prevalence of DEN antibody in the seven cities varied between 43.1 and 89.7%. Neutralization (N) test carried out on the ELISA-positive serum from Samana, one of the high antibody-prevalent cities, revealed that all the sera showed positive to at least two DEN serotypes. Geometric mean N titers against DEN-1, 2, 3 and 4 were 40.5, 463.7, 59.9 and 454.4 respectively. No difference in antibody prevalence was observed between males and females. It appeared that a high level of awareness regarding DF did little affect DEN prevalence. Strong, concrete public health strategies that motivate the local community to combat DF are required.

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Two known and two new species of the griseifrons species-group of the subgenus Simulium (Simulium) in Northern Thailand are reported. The male, pupa and mature larva of S. (S.) rudnicki Takaoka and Davies, and the pupa and mature larva of S. (S.) suchariti Takaoka and Choochote, are described for the first time. Furthermore, two new simuliid species, S. (S.) mediocoloratum sp. nov. and S. (S.) crocinum sp. nov., both of which are very similar to S. (S.) rudnicki, are also described.

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We gathered and analyzed date on respiratory diseases suffered by Japanese adults treated in Ram Hospital in Chiang Mai and Subang Jaya Medical Center in Kuala Lumpur. In both hospitals, the percentages of patients undergoing treatment for respiratory diseases was the greatest. Of these, relatively mild symptoms such as upper respiratory tract infection account for the majority of the diseases, but also included are instances of lower respiratory tract infection or chronic respiratory diseases such as chronic sinusitis and COPD⁄bronchial asthma. In Kuala Lumpur, we conducted a questionnaire-based survey targeted on Japanese people living there, in order to detemine the currnt status of respiratory deseases. The date showed that many Japanese had symptoms of respiratory diseases and felt that air pollution was serious.
It is important for Japanese people living in Asia to be aware of preventative measures to prevent respiratory diseases, such as those caused by air pollution and infection.

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The AnaeroPack^® malaria culture system with a portable thermostat incubator was evaluated in a field laboratory on the Thai-Myanmar border conducting in vitro drug susceptibility tests on blood samples from 5 Karen children infected with P. falciparum. Only one isolate was susceptible to chloroquine; the others were highly resistant. The IC₅₀ value of an isolate was only resistant to mefloquine, whereas the values of the 3 patients who presumably showed recrudescence were slightly elevated in the susceptible ranges. These results suggested that chloroquine should no longer be used for P. falciparum malaria in this geographic area, and that mefloquine should be carefully monitored for its in vivo effectiveness. In this study, the AnaeroPack^® malaria culture system with portable thermostatic incubator is a powerful and useful mobile tool, which aids in providing detailed evidence-based distribution data concerning of drug resistant malaria in the field.

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Shiga-toxin producing Escherichia coli isolated in Vietnam were examined. The 9 isolates included 5 from 400 diarrheal patients and 4 from 42 cows in 2003. No isolate carried eae gene. All human isolates except one and one of four animal isolates carried both stx1 and stx2. One of the human isolates could not be definitely identified as a Shiga-toxin producing Escherichia coli, because it showed positive for PCR using a common primer set for stx gene family and also positive for stx2d subtype, but negative for stx1, stx2 and for expression of the toxin. The serotypes of the isolates were various, but major serogroups such as O157, O26 and O111 were not found.

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