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Fifty-five patients, 51 males and 4 females heavily infected with Giardia lamblia were treated with a single 2 g dose of tinidazole (four tablets); 53 were cured. Of 20 other infected patients kept under the same conditions and given four placebo tablets, 18 continued to pass cysts or trophozoites in the stools during the whole 3- to 4-wk follow-up period in hospital. There were no side effects attributed to the drug.

Between 1 January 1971 and 31 December 1975, 1,333 patients with acute bacterial meningitis were admitted to the meningitis ward of the Abbassia Fever Hospital. These cases are tabulated by distribution of diagnosis, seasonal distribution, age and sex distribution, and age-specific case fatality ratio. Results are compared with those of other large series of cases reported from other parts of the world. The annual incidence of acute bacterial meningitis in Egypt varies widely. Recent data show this to be due to variations in the incidence of group A meningococcal meningitis. The study includes the declining phase of an epidemic of that disease and confirms a previously reported finding that the case fatality ratio in group A meningococcal meningitis varies inversely with the annual number of cases.

Thirteen patients with concomitant chronic salmonellosis and schistosomiasis and with the nephrotic syndrome were studied. Of the seven patients' sera examined, all had markedly low complement C3 and near normal C4 levels. This indirectly suggests an active role of Salmonella endotoxin in the etiology of the nephrosis.

In an ongoing study of obscure fevers in Cairo, Egypt which is presently in its 6th year, 12 cases of hepatic amebiasis have been diagnosed. Three were diagnosed during the period 1971-1974. With the introduction of amebic serologic techniques, particularly counterimmunoelectrophoresis, nine additional cases have been diagnosed in 1975-1976. Of 9 patients treated with metronidazole 6 were rapidly cured, 2 had a recurrence of fever necessitating surgical drainage of the abscess, and 1 died suddenly on the 3rd day of therapy.