Jundishapur Journal of Microbiology
Volume:2 Issue: 1, Jan-Mar 2009

The epidemiology of Candida fungal infections is growing, due to the increasing size of the people at risk. Candida species are the fourth main cause of bloodstream infections; however, significant geographic differences have been reported. Although, in some instances, these changes may be related to medical interventions, such as the use of antifungal agents in prophylaxis, in the majority of cases, they seem to be a consequence of changes in the host, such as more-severe immunosuppression or different types of immunosuppression impacting both risk periods and the infections that occur. Discussion of surveillances and reports will be critical to improve our understanding of the importance of invasive Candida infections, and to facilitate the prioritization of the investigation as well as the prevention efforts..

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of orally administered crushed fresh garlic cloves in the control of Pseudomonas aeruginosa burn wound infection among patients with different burn sizes. A total of 140 burn patients, divided into three groups according to their burns sizes: >70%, <70>45% and 20% of total body surface area (TBSA) were serially and randomly allocated into two equal number of control and treatment subgroups and matched for age, sex, area and cause of burn. Treatment group received two crushed garlic cloves mixed with yogurt with their daily lunch meal, while control group received plain yogurt only. The time P. aeruginosa of development of burn wound infection was considered as end-point for study among the selected groups. The results showed that the number of patients who developed P. aeruginosa burn wound infection was significantly reduced among the garlic-treated group with <45% but >20% of TBSA in the first week of hospitalization. No significant differences in other groups of patients were recorded. It seems that fresh crushed garlic cloves can be used as a supplementary herbal medicinal agent in delaying of P. aeruginosa burn wound infection in patients with moderate burn injuries..

Both smears positive and negative Pulmonary Tuberculosis (PTB) patients are routinely treated by six month therapeutic regimen. The aim of this study was to compare three and six month regimens chemotherapy for smear negative PTB among tuberculosis patients. Fifty-two patients with smear negative PTB randomly divided into two groups took part in this comparative clinical trial study. The patients in first group were treated with our recommended regimen (rifampicin, isoniazide, and ofloxacin) and another group with standard regimen according directly observed treatment short course strategy. Cure rates in first and second group were 96.5% and 100% respectively. There was no difference between two groups in responding to anti tuberculosis chemotherapy (p>0.05). This study showed that three month therapeutic regimen is as effective as six month therapeutic regimen and may be considered effective treatment for adult patients with unprogressive smear negative PTB.

Otomycosis is a fungal infection of external auditory meatus and is caused by several fungi such as saprophytes, yeasts and /or dermatophytes. The aim of the present study was to find the prevalence rate of fungal otitis in Kashan, Esfahan. This study was carried out on patients, referring to medical mycology laboratory (Golabchi laboratory, Kashan, Iran) during the years 2001-2003. Patients suffering from external otitis consulted with otorhino-laryngology specialists, and referred to our laboratory. Sterile swabs were used for sampling and direct smear and cultivation techniques were used for identification. From 910 patients suffering from external otitis 52 patients (5.7%) were diagnosed to have otomycosis, 16 patients (30.8%) were males and 36 (69.2%) were females. Aspergillus niger was the most common cause of otomycosis (32, 61.5%) and only one case (1.2%) was diagnosed with Scopulariopsis. This study demonstrated that otomycosis is relatively prevalent in Kasahn where has hot and dried climate. In addition, result shows a high prevalence rate for A. niger in otomycosis patients..

The aim of study was to determine the presence and nature of fungal flora on hearing aid ear moulds and ear canal in hearing aid wearers. Only ‘behind the ear’ (BTE) acrylic hearing aid moulds were included in this study. Hearing aid ear moulds and ear canal were swabbed and samples were cultured on Sabouraud's dextrose agar to determine qualitatively and quantitatively the mycoflora present. Seventeen out of 120 (14.2%) BTE wearers had different fungi in their hearing aids or ear canal. The most common fungi were Aspergillus niger (eight cases) followed by A. flavus (three cases), Rhizopus (three cases), Penicillium (two cases) and C. albicans (three cases). BTE wearers have a varied fungal flora on their ear moulds and ears canal. The fungal flora, including recognized pathogen that colonizes ear canal may lead to otomycosis..

Drynaria quercifolia, a non flowering group of plant, is being used by the tribals against skin diseases. It is found to be growing in rain forest of Western Ghats of Maharashtra.The aim of the present study was to assay antidermatophytic activity different extract ofD. quercifolia. Four different solvents such as ethanol, methanol, acetone, di-ethyl etherand water, were used to extract the bioactive compounds from the rhizome of D. quercifolia. Agar dilution and disk diffusion methods were used to screen the antidermatophytic activity against infectious disease causing pathogenic fungi such as Trichophyton mentagrophytes, Microsporum canis, M. gypseum, T. rubrum and Epidermophyton floccosum. The ethanol extract of the dried rhizome of D. quercifolia did not show inhibitory activity up to concentration of 20mg ml-1. The solvents of acetone, methanol and water also did not show any efficacy for extraction from D. quercifolia rhizome but di-ethyl ether with semi-polarity gave clear zone to antifungal activity compounds. Also high performance thin layer chromatography studies confirmed that the ethyle acetate extracts of rhizome of D. quercifolia contains triterpenes and coumarins and since coumarins soluble in semi-polar di-ethyl ether solvent, may be these compounds are responsible for antidermatophytic activity of this plant.

The Azotobacter vinelandii is an aerobic, nitrogen-fixing bacterium with the ability toaccumulate polyesters such as poly (3-hydroxybutyrate), a particular group of thepolyhydroxyalkanoates (pha), when will be cultivated on several carbon sources,including sucrose. Although the capacity of Azotobacter strains to accumulate polyestersis well known, and the genes responsible for their synthesis have recently beenidentified. However, high production costs have hindered the use ofpolyhydroxyalkanoates as bioplastics, since their final price is considerably high. Thephb gene clusters including phbBAC genes can alternatively be cloned and expressed inthe Escherichia coli with the goal to produce high cell density cultivation. We amplifiedseparately the phbB, phbA and phbC genes from extracted Azotobacter genome with the designed primers and could clone the fragments in the cloning vector pCR 2.1- TOPOwith the subsequent transformation of E. coli strain DH5.

Cockroaches, Blattodea order insects, act as an important mechanical vector for lots ofpathogenic microorganism agents, including bacteria, protozoa, worms, fungi, andviruses amongst humans and animals. Polyphaga aegyptica is a rare species ofcockroaches than the common cockroaches. The aim of this study was to isolate andidentify bacteria that are picked up by P. aegyptica over the human and animalpremises. In this study totally five P. aegyptica were collected to isolate their bacteria,from the house in Ahvaz SW Iran using common bacteriology methods. The isolatedbacteria in this study were Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Neisseria species,Bacillus cereus, B. subtilis and Staphylococci aureus based on sampling of external bodyand feces pellets of Egyptian cockroaches. The medical importance of P. aegyptica can bereferred to transmitting medical importance reported bacteria in the present study.