Main objective of the study was to assess the nutritional status of school age Roma children in Macedonia in order to detect precursors of possible health risks at an early age. The study was designed as a comparative case control study. Study group consisted of 229 Roma school children from the 1st and 272 from the 5th grade residing in different towns in Macedonia. The control group was recruited from other than Roma ethnic background and consisted of 283 children attending 1st and 356 children attending 5th grade. Every participant was measured for his/hers body height and weight. The t-test and Chi square (χ 2) were applied to test statistical significance of variables. The WHO's AnthroPlus software was applied to assess growth parameters and population at risk. There were significant differences in values of the body weight (p=0.001) and height (p=0.001) between Roma and non-Roma children attending the 1st grade of primary school. Weight-forage , height-forage and BMI-forage indexes of the 1st grade children significantly differred in in the same intervals of SD (≥−2SD and <−1SD; ≥−1SD and median; >+1SD and ≤+2SD; >+2SD and ≤+3SD). Except for limited intervals of the SD at BMI-forage index, there were no significant differences in anthropometric parameters between Roma and non-Roma 5th graders. Anthropometric parameters of nutritional status of Roma children in Macedonia are significantly different than those of their non-Roma peers. Their health risks are predominantly related to underweight. The parameters related to health risks of overweight or obesity are lower in Roma than in non-Roma children.

Abstracts / International Journal of Infectious Diseases 79(S1) (2019) 1-150 129 particles were able to harmonise data received from the participants and reduce the inter-laboratory variation. Based on these results, the WHO Expert committee on Biological Standardisation established the material as an International Reference Reagent.Conclusion: The lentiviral packaging system represent an enabling technology to assist the development and calibration of diagnostic kits. It is a safe alternative to handling a high containment level pathogen and obviates the issues related to bioterrorism law. Furthermore, this type of reference material can be prepared contemporaneously or in advance of any viral outbreak to assist calibration of sensitive and specific assays and their harmonisation through standardisation at the time of the emergency when they are most urgently needed.

Directigen Flu A+B has relatively low sensitivity for detection of influenza viruses in combined nose and throat swabs. Negative results must be confirmed.

The aim: To present and compare different Nucleic Acid Testing assays used for laboratory diagnosis of influenza virus infection in our country. Materials and methods: Respiratory samples used were nose and throat swabs. The RNA extraction was performed with a QIAamp viral RNA kit. During the season 2009–2010 the first 25 samples were tested with: conventional gel-based RT-PCR and CDC rtRT-PCR using published specific matrix and HA gene primers and probes for influenza virus typing and subtyping. Results: Of 25 samples tested with conventional RT-PCR 7(28%) were positive for influenza A, but negative for A/H1seasonal and A/H3. Retested with rtRT-PCR 9(36%) were positive for influenza A, 8(32%) were positive for A/H1pdm and 1(4%) was A/H3. Two samples positive with rtRT-PCR for influenza A were negative with RT-PCR. The sensitivity of the RT-PCR in comparison with rtRT-PCR is 100% and the specificity is 88.89%. Positive predictive value for RT-PCR is 77.78%, and negative predictive value is 100%. RT-PCR is a four-step and rtRT-PCR a one-step procedure. The turn-around time of RT-PCR is 6 hours and for rtRT-PCR it is 2 hours. Discussion and conclusion: For surveillance purposes nose and throat swabs are the more easy and practical to collect. It was proved that RT-PCR is too laborious, multi-step and time-consuming. The sensitivity of both assays is equal. The specificity of rtRT-PCR is higher. NAT assays for detection of influenza viruses have become an integral component of the surveillance programme in our country. They provide a fast, accurate and sensitive detection of influenza.

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