Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Infectious Diseases

Background: Neonatal sepsis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality globally. The aim of this study was to assess admission outcome and antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of bacterial isolates among neonates with suspected sepsis at the Dessie Comprehensive specialized Hospital (DCSH), Northeastern Ethiopia. Method: Cross-sectional study was conducted from August 2017 to March 2018. Two hundred forty-six neonates were recruited, and each patient's blood specimen was collected aseptically using bottle containing Brain Heart Infusion for blood culture...

Developing targeted and slow-release antibiotic delivery systems can effectively reduce drug overdose and side effects. This study aimed to investigate the antimicrobial activity of vancomycin-loaded soy protein nanoparticles (vancomycin-SPNs). For the preparation of SPNs, the desolvation method was applied in different concentrations of vancomycin and soy protein (15:5, 10:15, 6:20, 8:25, and 10:30 of vancomycin:soy protein). Scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and FTIR were used for nanoparticle characterization...

Introduction: Schistosoma mansoni is an intravascular parasite that interacts with all components of the host blood. Nearly, 10% of S. mansoni-infected patients progress to severe hepatosplenic Schistosomiasis is characterized by periportal fibrosis, obstruction of intrahepatic veins, presinusoidal portal hypertension, and splenomegaly. Thus, this study aimed to compare the basic coagulation profiles and platelet parameters of S. mansoni- infected adults and noninfected individuals as controls at Haik Primary Hospital, Northeast Ethiopia...

Malaria is the most important vector-borne disease; however, mosquito repellents are still a practical approach for controlling malaria, especially in endemic regions. Due to the side effects of synthetic repellents such as N , N -diethyl-meta-toluamide (DEET), the development of natural repellents has received much attention. In this study, nanoliposomes containing 0.5 and 2.5% w/v Cinnamomum zeylanicum essential oil were firstly prepared with particle sizes of 119 ± 6 and 195 ± 9 nm. Their morphologies and loading of the essential oil in the particles were then investigated using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) analyses...

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the top 10 causes of mortality and the first killer among infectious diseases of poverty (IDoPs) worldwide. It disproportionately affects on-third of the world's low-income countries including Ethiopia. One of the factors driving the TB epidemic is the global rise of MDR/XDR-TB and their low detection affect the global TB control progress. Recently, the resistance-associated genetic mutations in MTBC known to confer drug resistance have been detected by rapid molecular diagnostic tests and sequencing methods...

Background: Although the AMV and AMS vaccine candidates have similar characteristics as hemagglutinin and adhesive molecules, there are differences in molecular weight. Objective: The research aims to determine the immunological cross-reaction between AMS and AMV. Method: Antihemagglutination test used the anti-adhesion molecular antibody AMS. Next, we examined the immune response that has to be linked with protectivity. The model of the research uses MLIL...

Clindamycin can serve as an alternative treatment for staphylococcal infections. Routine susceptibility tests may fail to determine inducible type clindamycin resistance and can be a source of failure in clinical therapeutics. Therefore, this study aimed to determine Staphylococcus aureus ( S. aureus ) prevalence, inducible clindamycin resistance pattern, and associated factors among patients attending the University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Gondar, northwest Ethiopia. Methods . A cross-sectional study was conducted from January to April 2018...

Background: According to the contagious ability of the new virus, SARS-CoV-2, characterization of viral shedding duration in the period of infection is highly valuable in terms of providing quarantine guidelines and isolation policies. Therefore, we aimed at viral shedding determination in 58 COVID-19 confirmed Iranian subjects in different stages. Methods: 58 COVID-19 confirmed Iranian subjects including 21 outpatients and 37 inpatients were investigated. The analytical data and clinical properties were documented in the standard questionnaire...

Background: Patients infected with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) present with various clinical presentations with majority of them developing pulmonary complications. This study focuses on cardiac implications of COVID-19 which are less discussed and thus will help to address cardiac implications of COVID-19. Methods: PubMed, PubMed Central, and Google Scholar were screened for articles which mentioned cardiac implications of COVID-19. NHLBI Study Quality Assessment Tools for the observational cohort and cross-sectional studies was used for assessing the risk of bias of our studies...

Background: Lophomonas blattarum is an emerging protozoan agent that mainly infects the lower respiratory system, causing pulmonary lophomoniasis. The bronchoscopic findings in patients with pulmonary lophomoniasis have not been investigated yet. Accordingly, we assess the bronchoscopic findings of lophomoniasis in patients suffering from pulmonary lophomoniasis through a registry-based clinical study. Methods: In this retrospective study, of 480 patient candidates for bronchoscopy, 50 Lophomonas -positive patients were enrolled...

Background: The nonstructural protein (NS1) of human parvovirus B19 (hPVB19) is considered to be a double-edged sword in its pathogenesis. NS1 protein promotes cell death by apoptosis in erythroid-lineage cells and is also implicated in triggering and the progression of various inflammation and autoimmune disorders. Objectives: We investigated the possible role of hPVB19 NS1 in the modulation of proinflammatory cytokines in nonpermissive HEK-293T cells. Methods: A plasmid containing the fully sequenced NS1 gene (pCMV6-AC-GFP-NS1) was transfected into HEK-293T cells...

Data on clinical outcomes of patients hospitalized with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in private health facilities in Uganda is scarce. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 at Case Hospital, Kampala, Uganda, between June 2020 and September 2021. Data of 160 participants (median age 45 years (interquartile range [IQR]: 37-57) and 63.5% male) was analyzed. Seventy-seven (48.1%) participants had non-severe, 18 (11.3%) severe, and 83 (51.9%) critical COVID-19 illness...

Purpose: Elderly patients are at high risk of fatality from COVID-19. The present work aims to describe the clinical characteristics of elderly inpatients with COVID-19 and identify the predictors of in-hospital mortality at admission. Materials and Methods: In this retrospective, multicenter cohort study, we included elderly COVID-19 inpatients ( n  = 245) from four hospitals in Sylhet, Bangladesh, who had been discharged between October 2020 and February 2021...

Background: The pathogenic mechanisms and immune response of COVID-19 are far from clear. Through a documentary review of literature, the authors describe virological and molecular aspects of SARS-CoV-2, the intimate mechanisms of cell infection, and potential therapeutic targets. They also analyze the characteristics of immune response of the infected subject. Objectives: Objectives of this study are to describe the state of knowledge on virological data, molecular and physiopathogenic mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2, with a view to a better understanding of the therapeutic targets, as well as the immune response of the infected subject...

Background: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identifies asthma as a comorbidity in COVID-19 that increases the risk of severity and death. However, research has shown that asthma is not associated with increased severity and death, thus making the consequences of asthma in COVID-19 unclear. Methods: We searched the electronic databases PubMed, WHO COVID-19 database, and Taylor and Francis Online for studies that compared the medical outcomes of COVID-19 between patients with and without asthma, from the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 in December 2019 to the 3rd of September 2021, excluded duplicates, reviews, editorials, and case reports, and screened the titles, abstracts, and full texts...

BACKGROUND: Empiric treatment of suspected neonatal sepsis must be based on data on setting-specific causative pathogens and their respective susceptibilities to antimicrobials, as well as universal treatment guidelines. This approach will ensure better therapeutic outcomes and reduce mortality. OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to determine the bacteriological profile and antibiotic susceptibility pattern of isolated microorganisms responsible for neonatal sepsis in a regional hospital in Ghana...

Objectives: Lophomonas protozoan is an emerging pathogen transmitted through arthropods such as cockroaches. Lophomoniasis is still a mysterious disease with many unknown epidemiological aspects. The current study aimed to determine the prevalence of lophomoniasis among patients who were hospitalized in Hajar Hospital, Shahrekord, southwestern Iran, using a conventional PCR technique. Methods: In this retrospective study, 132 frozen bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) specimens from patients with respiratory disorders hospitalized in Hajar Hospital, Shahrekord district, southwestern Iran, were analyzed during 2020-2021...

The outbreak of COVID-19 is a global problem today, and, to reduce infectious cases and increase recovered cases, it is relevant to estimate the future movement and pattern of the disease. To identify the hotspot for COVID-19 in Bangladesh, we performed a cluster analysis based on the hierarchical k-means approach. A well-known epidemiological model named "susceptible-infectious-recovered (SIR)" and an additive regression model named "Facebook PROPHET Procedure" were used to predict the future direction of COVID-19 using data from IEDCR...

Objective: To report the effectiveness of the antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP) in a long-term care (LTC) facility, by analyzing the change in antimicrobial consumption and cost and multidrug resistance (MDR) rates over a 5-year period. Method: A prospective interventional study was conducted at a 106-bed facility (nursing home: 100 beds and an intensive care unit (ICU): 6 beds). The ASP was designed and led by a multidisciplinary team including an infectious disease consultant, two clinical pharmacists, a clinical microbiologist, and an infection control preventionist...

Introduction: Previous COVID-19 prognostic models have been developed in hospital settings and are not applicable to COVID-19 cases in the general population. There is an urgent need for prognostic scores aimed to identify patients at high risk of complications at the time of COVID-19 diagnosis. Methods: The RDT COVID-19 Observational Study (RCOS) collected clinical data from patients with COVID-19 admitted regardless of the severity of their symptoms in a general hospital in India...