Henri Gastaut

and psychologist, and thus attracted to his . fever in laboratories a stream of young professionHenri Gastaut, former president of Aix- als from many countries. Until her death, An outbreak of fever, arthralgia, and rash Marseilles University, died on July 15. :. his wife Yvette collaborated with his work. in Haverhill, MA, USA, in 1926 was : Gastaut’s chapter on the physiopatholoMost neurologists know the work of : : attributed to Streptobacillus moniliformis, a Gastaut and his school (Henri Gastaut and : gy of epileptic seizures in the Handbook of ; : commensal found in the nasopharynx or tha trtr Physiology in 1959, and the urine of rodents. The outbreak was book he co-edited in 1961, Contribution to the Neuroblamed on raw milk. There was a similar Cerebral Anoxia and the : sciences, edited by RJ at a girls’ boarding school in the EEG (56 contributors),: episode Broughton of Ottawa), in 1983 UK (Lancet 1987; ii: 1361-63), indicated his early ability to: which was based on the for which no cause was found but there : and clinical electroenspread ideas. Many have had been opportunity for contamination long since been accepted, of cephalographic correlations drinking water by rats. in epilepsy. The sixty-six such as how focal, particuS can cause a similar contributors to this volume larly psychomotor, seizures: diseasemoniliformis in people bitten by rodents. : are due to a variety of caus(published in 1982) bear Martin and colleagues report (Clin the Gastaut-Lennox witness to the inspiration es ; Microbiol News; 17: 133-35) a 79-year-old that Gastaut brought to the syndrome; the differentiawoman from Huelva, Spain, who had tion between epilepsy and subject throughout nearly abdominal pain, fever, arthralgia, and a four decades. The 25 Colanoxic seizures due to lump over her right sternoclavicular joint. loquia of Marseilles, held Cultures of blood and of joint aspirate : between 195U and 197o, drew particidence of febrile seizures; the incidence of S moniliformis. She recovered after grew pants from many parts of the world, eager carotid sinus hypersensitivity; and the receiving penicillin. There were no to debate, confront the issues, and enjoy . demonstration that people with epilepsy indications of direct or indirect contact : the sunny hospitality of their French may have episodes of abnormal behaviour with rodents in the patient’s domestic : (temporary psychosis) associated with circumstances. colleagues. Gastaut’s career began as an anatomist. concurrent EEG abnormality but without: The authors note that Haverhill fever When working with Herbert Jasper in a clinical seizure at the time. Throughout: should be considered in the diagnosis of : Montreal, and later with Grey Walter in the years, Gastaut’s association with the: septic arthritis, and that care is needed in Robert neurophysiologist Bristol, he quickly saw the potential of eminent the organism since it is fastidi: now in the Paris, kept Naquet, Marseilles: culturing electroencephalography (EEG) to illumious and affected by some of the inhibitors school’s areas of interest well balanced. nate the complex subject of epilepsy. commonly used in blood-culture vials. Ambitiously, he then gathered a team which included a neurophysiologist, John Bignall neurologist, neurosurgeon, psychiatrist, Mariella Fischer-Williams

Henri Gastaut

UK mental health under

scrutiny

Haverhill

operational this week. The department will study the molecular basis of brain development and complement the Ebola fever epidemic The International hospital’s brain tumour treatment probecame

News in brief

Scientific an Technical Committee established by the WHO in Zaire has officially announced the end of the recent Ebola haemorrhagic fever epidemic in that country. The final total number of confirmed cases was 315, including 244 deaths (mortality 77%). Of the 286 cases whose occupation was known, 75 (26%) were nurses or students, and 61 (21%) housewives. Retrospective case-finding is in progress, [care programme approach] implementavirus-isolation studies are being done on tion remains patchy and we are determined to ensure that the CPA is fully samples from more than 3000 birds and implemented in all Districts as a matter of mammals captured in an effort to find the urgency". : reservoir of the virus, and blood from patients and contacts are being testThe "patchy" nature of service provied at WHO Collaborating Centres in . sion was highlighted in a report by a Clinical Standards Advisory Group, chaired Atlanta, USA, and Jonannesburg, South Africa. : by Prof Andrew Sims, which was published on Aug 24. The committee had been commissioned by the UK health UK multidrug resistant TB The first ministers on standards of care for people outbreak of hospital-acquired multidrugwith schizophrenia. The report (ISBN 0resistant tuberculosis in England has been 11-321-929-9) described "a high degree reported CDR 1995; 34: 161). The outof variation in the standards of care and break (1 index and 4 secondary cases)’: services available for the severely mentally occurred in a London HIV unit. : ill across the UK". It indicated that poor service provision tended to be linked with Memphis’ developmental neurobiology: low staff morale. : St Children’s Research

Health authorities were last week given a November deadline for ensuring that they have developed practicable plans for the delivery of mental health care in the community. Health minister, Gerald Malone, wrote to all National Health Service chairmen to inform them of the time limit. Malone’s letter stated "We are concerned that, four years after its introduction, CPA

samples

Hospital has nearly US$20 million to its developmental neurobiology unit, which Jude

committed

Sarah

632

Ramsay

Spain

are Dr Tom Curand Dr James I Morgan, formerly of the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology, Nutley, New Jersey.

gramme. The directors ran

UK Workplace Health Advisory Team The Department of Health is providing 300 000 over 2 years to fund a team to encourage the development of a network of workplace health alliances. The team will start work by April next year. Success will be measured by the number of selfsustaining alliances formed and by their impact (in terms of fitness of the workforce and reduction in absenteeism). Non-tuberculous mycobacterial lymphadenitis in south-east England The annual number of cases of non-tuberculous mycobacterial lymphadenitis recorded by the Public Health Laboratory Service in Dulwich, which receives specimens from about 90 client laboratories in south-east England has risen from two in 1873 to 32 in 1993. Mycobacterium avium accounted for most of the increase, followed by M malmoense. Whether the increase is due to increased awareness or an environmental factor is not clear.