Objective To evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of zinc gluconate nasal spray in the prevention of upper respiratory infection. Methods A random, double-blind and placebo-controlled study was conducted in a total of 901 healthy male recruits, who were randomized into 2 groups, experiment group and control group, by using a random-number table. The experiment group, consisted of 447 recruits, was given zinc gluconate nasal spray, and the control group, consisted of 454 recruits, with placebo for one month. During the course of the experiment, 61 in trial group and 67 in control group were eliminated. The incidence of upper respiratory infection, influenza-like illness, and the incidence of all the symptoms were documented after treatment for one month. Results Seven hundred and seventy-three recruits completed the schedule finally up to standard, among them 386 recruits were in experiment group and 387 in placebo group. The incidence of upper respiratory infection and influenza-like illness were lower in experiment group (26.94% and 0.26%, respectively) than in control group (34.37% and 2.06%, respectively; ?2=5.010 for upper respiratory infection, P

PURPOSE: To evaluate the feasibility for gold immunochromatographic assay (GICA) in rapid detection of influenza virus A infection. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Seventy-three patients were enrolled. All patients contributed nasopharyngeal secretions and paired serum samples. Nasopharyngeal secretions was used for colloidal gold immunochromatographic rapid assay for influenza A virus immediately after the collection of specimen. Paired serum samples were used for the hemagglutination inhibition assay at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention influenza network laboratory in Beijing. RESULTS: Compare GICA test to hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assay, the Kappa value was 0.402 and the p value in the paired chi2 test was higher than 0.05. Therefore, the difference was not statistically significant. The sensitivity of GICA was 50.0% and the specificity was 90.2%, and the negative predictive value was 90.2%. CONCLUSION: The sensitivity for Influenza A antigen detection by using GICA is relatively low, the specificity is relatively satisfactory.
Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Antigens, Viral/*blood ; Female ; *Gold Colloid ; Humans ; Immunochromatography/*methods ; Influenza A virus/*immunology ; Influenza, Human/*diagnosis/immunology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Reagent Kits, Diagnostic ; Sensitivity and Specificity