Parasitological, haematological, immunological and clinical examinations were carried out on 29 Guatemalan patients with onchocerciasis. The patients were given diethylcarbamazine (DEC) treatment (5 mg/kg/day for 7 days) and then examined clinically the adverse reactions at 3, 12, 24, 48 and 72 hours after the initial administration of DEC. The essential features of the adverse reactions elicited by DEC administration were pruritus, rash, pain, lymphadenopathy and edema. The severity of those reactions was found to be roughly proportional to the eosinophil counts in blood and/or the serum level of Onchocerca volvulus-antigen specific IgG.

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Parasitological surveys were carried out on the fecal and blood samples from the Vietnamese refugees living in the Motobu House for the Vietnamese, Motobu, Okinawa, Japan. Intestinal helminths were detected in 444 (67.1 %) of 662 refugees examined. Ascaris infection was the most prevalent (56.3%), followed by Trichuris (21.8%), hookworms (18.4%) and Strongyloides (2.3%) infections. Hymenolepis nana infection was observed in three cases, and Taenia saginata, Fasciolopsis buski and Clonorchis sinensis infections in each one case. In almost all age groups, the prevalence was over 50 per cent, and incidence of infection was higher in males than in females. In general, the condition of helminthic infections in the refugees resembled those reported in the urban areas in South Vietnam.Intestinal protozoans were observed in 50 (18.2%) of 274 persons examined. Endolimax nana (11.3%), Entamoeba coli (4.7%) and Giardia lamblia (3.6%) were found but E. histolytica was not detected. Malarial parasites and microfilariae were not demonstrated in the blood samples from 311 persons although three cases of benign tertian malaria have been recorded among refugees in the house. The significance of these parasitic infections in the health of Vietnamese refugees and the influence to the public health status of the inhabitants living around the refugee camp were discussed.

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Phosphodiesterase was isolated from the lyophilized venom of Agkistrodon acutus from China using gel filtration on a Sephadex G-75 column, followed by chromatography on diethylaminoethyl (DEAE) -Sephadex A-50, carboxymethyl (CM) -Cellulose and Affi-Gel Blue affinity. Homogeneity was established by the formation of a single band in acrylamide gel electrophoresis, isoelectric focusing, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) acrylamide gel electrophoresis and immunodiffusion. Phosphodiesterase activity was inhibited by ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA), ethyleneglycol (β-aminoethyl) N, N, N', N'-tetraacetic acid (EGTA), o-phenanthroline, cysteine, thioglycolic acid, glutathione or p-chloromercuribenzoate (PCMB) but not by soybean trypsin inhibitor (SBTI), limabean trypsin inhibitor (LBTI), egg white trypsin inhibitor (EWTI), benzamidine or trasylol. The molecular weight of this enzyme was determined to be approximately 140, 000 and the isoelectric point was found to be pH 7.4 by isoelectric focusing with carrier ampholyte. The phosphodiesterase activity of the final preparation was 2, 190 units/mg. This protein was unstable to heat treatment and stable between. pH 7 and 12. Its michaelis constant (Km) and inhibition constant (Ki) values for pnitrophenyl thymidine-5'-phosphate or EDTA were found to be 1.6×10^-3M and 5.8×10^-6M, respectively. This protein did not contain any carbohydrates.

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