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Background: The world is on the verge of eradicating polio. In the absence of immunity, laboratory staff handling infectious clinical specimens or viable polioviruses may eventually become a source for transmission. Polio vaccine is mandatory in Bulgaria. Control of acquired immunity is carried out only sporadically. As antibody titers decline with age, determining the seroprevalence in adult laboratory staff would be a contribution to the risk assessment in case of polio importation., Methods: Cell culture microneutralization assay for detecting antibodies against poliovirus 1 and 3 was applied., Results: The seroprevalence of poliovirus 1 and 3 antibodies among personnel employed at the National Center of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases in Bulgaria, who are handling stool specimens, was 100 and 79%, respectively., Conclusions: Seroprevalence meets the target of 80%. It can be concluded that personnel are protected against polioviruses and would not be a source of infection in case of polio importation.

The incidence of dental caries /Is/ on deciduous molars in 1216 children aged 3 to 8 from Plovdiv has been studied. The results showed highest Is in the fissures of m1 and m2 and lowest Is on the smooth surfaces. The incidence of dental caries is getting higher with statistically significant differences in the lower jaw up to the 6th year and in the upper jaw up to 7th year of age. Is in the lower jaw is higher than that of the upper jaw only in the fissures.

The behaviour of Bulgarian children dental patients at the age of 4-12 has been studied by application of Venham's 6--grade behaviour scale. A sample of 274 clinically healthy children, divided in 3 age groups, were the object of the study. It has been found that the number of children whose behaviour has been assessed as one within the norm, is much greater that the number of the rest of patients-amounting to 77.74% and their number increasing with age. The negative behaviour, regardless of its rate, is not influenced by age.

An assessment of the oral hygiene and periodontal health was made in 1596 school children (777 boys and 819 girls) aged 7-14 years from randomly selected classes and schools in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The oral hygiene status of the school children assessed by the plaque indexes (PLI) of J. Greene and J. Vermillion, and that of J. Silness and H. Löe was found to be rather poor. The relative share of subjects with plaque index of 0.00 to 1.00 was found to increase with age for both sexes. The relative share of children with chronic catarrhal gingivitis was 42.61 +/- 2.34 indicating the necessity of active prophylaxis and treatment of the disease. A tendency was observed towards an increase of the disease incidence in comparison with data obtained in a 1983 study. A correlation between the hygiene status and chronic gingival inflammation in 14-year-old school children was found.

Results are reported from the comparative investigations of kidney concentration function by urine specific gravity and its osmolatity of 58 patients with arterial hypertension. Significant differences were found in more of the half of the patients. On the base of certain theoretical prerequisites and possibilities of technical errors was concluded that the determination of the maximal urine osmolality is a more reliable and more accurate index for the actual renal concentration ability. Urine specific gravity can be used in the everyday clinical practice due to the more convenient and easier determination. Urine osmolality must be used predominantly in scientific-clinical studies.