Avicenna Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Infection
Volume:2 Issue: 2, May 2015

Nowadays, parasitic infections are a major health problem throughout the world, particularly in the developing countries.. Considering the high susceptibility of children against parasitic infections, the current study aimed to determine the prevalence and associated risk factors of intestinal parasitic infections among children less than 10 years old in urban and rural areas of Hamadan district..Patients and The current study was conducted on 395 children (214 males and 181 females), referred to urban and rural health centers in Hamadan district in 2013. Stool samples were examined by formalin-ether concentration technique, and trichrome and modified Ziehl-Neelsen staining methods. The results were analyzed by chi-square test.. Of the 395 studied children, 112 (28.4%) were infected with intestinal parasites. Blastocystis hominis was the most frequently detected parasite with the prevalence of 18.5%, followed by Giardia lamblia (10.9%), Entamoeba coli (2.8%), Dientamoeba fragilis (0.8%), Iodamoeba buetschlii (0.8%), Chilomastix mesnili (0.5%), Cryptosporidium spp. (0.5%), Endolimax nana (0.3%) and Entamoeba hartmanni (0.3%). No cases of infection with helminth parasites were found.. The results of the study showed a high prevalence of Giardia lamblia and Blastocystis hominis in rural areas compared to urban regions. Therefore it is necessary to promote the public health awareness in the rural population, in order to reduce the frequency of parasitic infections..

Brucellosis is a common zoonotic disease which has a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations and complications in humans. Brucellosis is an endemic disease in Iran. The aim of this case report was to introduce acute hepatitis as a rare complication of acute brucellosis.. First case, a 25-year-old man, who complained from fever, chillness, nocturnal sweating, nausea, vomiting, jaundice, and right upper quadrant pain, and was admitted to the hospital. Laboratory tests showed a five-fold increase in alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase levels, and increased total and direct bilirubin and alkaline phosphatase levels. Second case, a 63-year-old man, who complained from fever, chillness, weight loss, malaise and nocturnal sweating, and was admitted to the hospital. Laboratory tests showed an eight-fold increase in alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase levels, and increased total and direct bilirubin and alkaline phosphatase levels. The patient had jaundice at the third day of admission. The results of seroagglutination tests, Wright and 2-mercaptoethanol (2ME) were positive for both patients. The patients were diagnosed as having acute brucella hepatitis and were treated with standard regimen of anti-brucella drugs and improved completely after six weeks of treatment.. Brucellosis must be considered in the differential diagnosis of acute hepatitis in patients with jaundice and fever manifestations especially if there is a history of unpasteurized dairy products ingestion and life in endemic areas because early diagnosis and treatment of the patient can decrease complications and mortality rate..

Acinetobacter baumannii has become a major cause of hospital-acquired infections due to its resistance to common antibacterial agents. Biofilm formation is a well-known pathogenic mechanism involved in A. baumannii infections.. The aim of this study was to determine the association between biofilm formation and antibiotic resistance, production of AmpC and Extended-Spectrum β-lactamases (ESBL) in clinical isolates of A. baumannii collected from two hospitals of Tehran.. Sixty isolates of A. baumannii were employed of which, 30 were burn and 30 were non-burn isolates. Biofilm formation was measured by the microtiter plate assay. The production of AmpC was detected by the AmpC disc test with cloxacillin, and ESBL production was determined using the double disc synergy test.. Biofilm production occurred in 61.7% of the isolates among which, non-burn isolates (59.5%) produced more biofilm compared to the burn strains (40.5%). Multidrug resistance was observed in both biofilm positive and negative strains. However, the non-burn isolates were significantly more resistant to meropenem and tobramycin regardless of their potential to form biofilm. Interestingly, biofilm-producing non-burn isolates were significantly more resistant to amikacin, gentamicin, tobramycin and meropenem. Production of AmpC was also significantly higher in biofilm-producing non-burn isolates. Conversely, ESBL production was significantly higher in burn isolates. There was an association between biofilm formation and AmpC but not ESBL-production among non-burn isolates.. The potential to form biofilm correlated with antibiotic resistance and AmpC production in non-burn burn isolates of A. baumannii. On the other hand, the burn strains produced significantly higher amounts of ESBL yet biofilm production was unrelated to antibiotic resistance or ESBL-production..

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection is a major public health problem in developing countries, which could progress to an acute self-limited hepatitis. Young adults and middle-aged people are more likely to be infected than children and elderly persons. The disease is usually mild in general population; severe infection is more seen among pregnant women and leads to a high rate of mortality in this population.. This study aimed to assess seroprevalence of HEV infection and related risk factors among pregnant women referred to Fatemieh Hospital in Hamadan, Iran..Patients and A total of 1050 pregnant women were included in this prospective cross-sectional study, conducted from 2010 to 2011. Anti-HEV specific IgG was measured with ELISA method. A questionnaire containing research purposes was also fulfilled for each participant.. The mean age of pregnant women was 27.2 ± 5.6 years. The overall seroprevalence of anti-HEV was 7.4%. There was a significant association between anti-HEV seropositivity and age (P < 0.001), degree of education (P = 0.017), number of household members (P = 0.002), siblings (P = 0.005), and parities (P = 0.007). However, no significant relationship was observed between positive anti-HEV and variables such as place of residence, occupation, history of animal contacts, agricultural activities, type of drinking water, and the method of washing vegetables (P > 0.05).. According to the results, 92.6% of pregnant women were anti-HEV negative. However, there is no available effective vaccine for its prevention in human yet. Therefore, education about environmental and personal hygiene before and during pregnancy may be helpful for decreasing the rate of HEV infection in this high risk population..

Infectious complications among Injection Drug Users (IDUs) are associated with significant morbidity and mortality and place an enormous burden on the healthcare system.. The present study aimed to describe the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of infectious complications in a sample of IDUs admitted to a hospital in Hamadan, Iran..Patients and In a retrospective manner, medical records of IDUs admitted to an infectious diseases ward between 2007 and 2012 were reviewed. Data on patients’ demographic characteristics, reasons for admission, antibiotic treatment prior to admission, duration of hospital stay, mortality, and also the status of infection with hepatitis B, C, and HIV were recorded.. Data for 100 IDUs lead to 115 admission episodes were available during the study. Bacterial infections accounted for 71% of all admissions. Among bacterial infections, skin and soft tissue infections, endocarditis, bone and joined infections emerged as the most common types. For 29% of cases, the reason for admission was due to viral pathogens, among which HIV/AIDS was the most common. The prevalence rates for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV infection were 10.0%, 6.0% and 23.0%, respectively. The mean duration of hospital stay was 15.1 ± 0.9 days (range: 8 - 45 days). During the study period, 13 deaths were documented.. Despite implementation of community-level harm reduction strategies in Iran, infectious complications due to illicit drug use are frequent and often require care at the hospital. Introducing harm reductions services at an inpatient level may improve the quality of care provided and help reduce the burden of accrue from drug use..

Brucellosis is a multi-systemic infectious disease characterized by fever, sweating, generalized malaise, weight loss, and arthralgia. Brucella Endocarditis (BE) is a serious complication of Brucellosis and occurs in 1% of all types of Brucella infections. Also, Brucella is one of the main causes of vertebral osteomyelitis. To the authors’ best knowledge, to date there has been no report regarding the concurrence of endocarditis and osteomyelitis in Brucellosis.. The current case was a 70-year-old female presented with fever and low back pain. The spinal Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) was performed and signal changing in T9, T10 with probability of metastasis was reported. Before neurosurgical management, 2ME and Wright were checked and the titers were positive. Changing heart murmur, transthoracic, and transesophageal, and aortic-valve vegetation were detected in physical examinations and echocardiography. The patient was treated for six months and the low back pain improved and no vegetation was detected in echocardiography at the end of this period.. Physicians should consider Brucellosis in all patients with low back pain in the Brucella endemic regions, and in those with spondylitis or culture-negative IE in the Brucella endemic regions..