Mikrobiyol Bul
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Influenza type A viruses have conserved their actuality and importance during history with their special respect of genetic variations and global pandemics. In recent years their significance has increased because of the appearence of "bird flu" caused by a highly virulent strain H5N1 subtype. Although influenza type A viruses that cause infections in the birds (avian influenza) are species-specific, some may cross the species barrier to infect humans. ⋯ Recently, the Food and Drug Administration has announced the first approval in the United States of a vaccine for humans against the H5N1 influenza virus on April 17h, 2007, however the manufacturer (Sanofi Pasteur) won't sell the vaccine commercially; instead, the vaccine has been purchased by the federal government for inclusion within the National Stockpile (http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2007/NEW01611.htm). The major prevention is then mainly based on continous public education about the tranmission routes, early symptoms and signs of the infection, and warning people to obey preventive measures without any panic. In this review article influenza virus A (H5N1) infections, epidemiology and protection have been discussed.
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Comparative Study
[Comparison of interferon-gamma whole blood assay with tuberculin skin test for the diagnosis of tuberculosis infection in tuberculosis contacts].
Tuberculin skin test which is used for the detection of latent tuberculosis (TB), has many disadvantages such as false positivities due to cross reactions between environmental mycobacteria and BCG strain, false negativities due to immunosuppression and malpractice, and also difficulties in application and evaluation. Recently a new diagnostic test which measures the production of interferon (IFN)-gamma in whole blood upon stimulation with specific ESAT-6 and CFP-10 antigens of Mycobacterium tuberculosis has been introduced. Since most of the mycobacteria other than tuberculosis and BCG strain do not contain these antigens, the detection of IFN-gamma levels indicates the specific T-cell response against M. tuberculosis. ⋯ Evaluation of agreement rates of the tests according to the risk groups yielded 64.6% (K = 0.3) for Group 1, 71.7% (K = 0.32) for Group 2, and 63.5% (K = 0.21) for Group 3, which all coefficients showed poor agreement. Although IFN-gamma blood assay has many advantages such as objective and quantitative results, no interference with vaccination due to the use of specific antigens and being practical, the high cost and the need for well-equipped laboratory are its disadvantages. As a result it was concluded that, IFN-gamma blood assay has limited value for the detection of latent TB infection in our country, since the prevalence of TB infection and BCG vaccination rates are high in Turkey.
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Comparative Study
[Differential diagnosis of bacterial and viral meningitis in childhood acute meningitis: a statistical model].
Acute bacterial meningitis (BM) which is a pediatric emergency with high mortality and morbidity, must be diagnosed and treated promptly. There is no unique method to prove or rule out the diagnosis of BM in a patient with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) findings consistent with BM but negative Gram stain and culture results. ⋯ Logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the relationship between BM and age, CPR, ESR, leukocyte count, CSF leukocyte, neutrophil, protein and glucose values. Based on CSF protein and neutrophil ratio which were found as independent variables, the regression model could predict the patients having BM with 95% and viral meningitis with 93.2% accuracy.
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Clostridium difficile-associated disease can be observed especially in hospitalized patients who use broad-spectrum antibiotics. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of C. difficile as the causative agent of diarrhea in outpatients and inpatients. During January-December 2005, 45 outpatients and 46 inpatients (of them 11 were intensive care unit patients) who had developed diarrhea due to antibiotic use, were included to the study. ⋯ It was detected that 84.6% (11/13) of the patients had used ampicillin/sulbactam, 7.7% (1/13) used cotrimoxazole-SXT, and 7.7% (1/13) used macrolide antibiotics. The use of ampicillin/sulbactam was found statistically significant in development of diarrhea (p<0.05). Our data indicated that ELISA Toxin A+B is a reliable method with 100% specificity and sensitivity in the rapid diagnosis of C. difficile until the culture results were obtained, however, although specificity of Toxin A latex test is 100%, its use alone as a primary rapid diagnostic test was not recommended because of its low (30.7%) sensitivity.
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Antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of Gram negative pathogens (n: 699) isolated from nosocomial infections in Hacettepe University Adult Hospital included in MYSTIC programme between 2000-2004 were determined by Etest (AB BIODISK, Solna, Sweden) using CLSI criteria. Of the total Escherichia coli (n: 179), Klebsiella pneumoniae (n: 168), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (n: 179) and Acinetobacter baumannii (n: 173) isolates, 55% were from patients in inpatient clinics and 45% were from patients in intensive care units. The extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) production rate of E. coli and K. pneumoniae isolates were 28% and 47%, respectively. ⋯ Of the P. aeruginosa isolates, 77% were multi-drug resistant with susceptibility rates to piperacillin+tazobactam, ciprofloxacin, meropenem and imipenem as 55%, 53%, 51% and 49%, respectively. The susceptibilities of P. aeruginosa isolates were 48% to ceftazidime, 41% to cefepime and 35% to tobramycin. Of the A.baumannii isolates, 67% were multi-drug resistant with higher susceptibility rates to meropenem (53%), imipenem (48%) and tobramycin (44%) compared to other antimicrobials cefepime (37%), ciprofloxacin (29%), piperacillin+tazobactam (26%) and ceftazidime (22%).