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Human bocavirus (HBoV), that was first identified in 2005 and classified in Parvoviridae family, is a small, non-enveloped, single-stranded DNA virus, responsible for upper and lower respiratory tract infections, especially in young children. Although HBoV generally causes self-limited influenza-like illness, it may also lead to pneumonia, bronchiolitis, croup and asthma attacks. In this report, a case of acute bronchiolitis complicated with pneumomediastinum and bilateral pneumothorax caused by HBoV has been presented. A three-year-old boy was referred to our pediatric intensive care unit with a two day history of fever, tachypnea, hypoxia and respiratory failure. On auscultation, there were widespread expiratory wheezing and inspiratory crackles. The chest radiography yielded paracardiac infiltration and air trapping on the right lung and infiltration on the left lung. The patient had leukocytosis and elevated C-reactive protein level. On the second day of admission, respiratory distress worsened and chest radiography revealed right pneumothorax and subcutaneous emphysema in bilateral cervical region and left chest wall. He was intubated because of respiratory failure. In the thorax computed tomography, pneumomediastinum and bilateral pneumothorax were detected and right chest tube was inserted. Repetitive blood and tracheal aspirate cultures were negative. A nasopharyngeal swab sample was analyzed by multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction method with the use of viral respiratory panel (FTD(®) Respiratory Pathogens 21 Kit, Fast-Track Diagnostics), and positive result was detected for only HBoV. On the ninth day of admission, pneumomediastinum and bilateral pneumothorax improved completely and he was discharged with cure. In conclusion, HBoV bronchiolitis may progress rare but severe complications, it should be kept in mind as an etiological agent of the respiratory tract infections especially children younger than five years old.

Flu caused by influenza viruses, is a serious public health problem all over the world with its high morbidity and mortality. Therefore World Health Organization (WHO) regularly collects the results of national influenza surveillance, evaluates the results and shares them on international portal. Thus, it provides the possibility of rapid prevention and preparation of countries that needs to be taken on the fight against the epidemic flu. Starting from 2004-2005 season until today the current flu activity in our country is also followed in accordance with sentinel surveillance. The aim of this study was to evaluate the results of sentinel surveillance data obtained by National Influenza Reference Laboratory in Istanbul University Faculty of Medicine, in 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 seasons. For this purpose, nasal/nasopharyngeal swab samples taken from the patients diagnosed as influenza-like illness by the volunteer family physicians in Izmir, Istanbul, Antalya, Edirne and Bursa were included in the study. A total of 1240 samples were delivered to our laboratory in three days, in Virocult® transport culture medium according to cold chain rules. All the samples were studied by real-time polymerase chain reaction (Rt-PCR) according to the protocols of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In our study, the positivity rates of influenza viruses in 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 seasons were detected as 31.4% (202/641) and 44.4% (289/650), respectively. In 2013-2014 season, influenza A(H3N2) virus was the predominant type with a rate of 93.1% (188/202), and the rest was influenza B virus (14/202; 6.9%). In 2014-2015 season, influenza B virus has been dominated with a rate of 60.2% (174/289), and the rates of influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 and influenza A(H3N2) were 30.4% (88/289) and 9.3% (27/289), respectively. The flu season in 2013-2014 has started at 48th week and peaked at 52nd week, while it was started later in the second week in 2014-2015 season and peaked at 10th-13th week. The lineage of the influenza B viruses isolated in both seasons were identified as B/Yamagata. Antigenic characterization of influenza A viruses isolated in our laboratory was found compatible with the vaccine strains. In conclusion, surveillance studies are highly important for the determination of the effects of flu on public health and identification of the approaches for fighting with flu. In this sense, influenza surveillance of the countries are required to implement more effectively in an expanded field of scale.

Anticardiolipin antibodies (ACAs) are formed against phospholipids in various clinical conditions such as autoimmune diseases, malignancy, infectious diseases, alcohol-related and hepatic cirrhosis. The aims of this study were to investigate the presence of ACAs in patients with chronic hepatitis B together with positive total anti-delta antibodies, and to investigate the relationship between age, gender, and some laboratory parameters (ALT, AST, albumin, globulin, platelet number) of patients with chronic hepatitis delta virus (HDV) infection, who were positive or negative for ACAs. A total of 60 patients (43 male, 17 female) with chronic hepatitis D infection [HBsAg positive, HBeAg negative, anti-HBe positive, anti-HBc IgG positive, anti-HBc IgM negative, total anti-delta positive, anti-HCV negative] and 30 patients (21 male, 9 female) without hepatitis D infection [HBsAg positive, HBeAg negative, anti-HBe positive, anti-HBc IgG positive, anti-HBc IgM negative, total anti-delta negative, anti-HCV negative] as control group were included to the study. ACA IgG and IgM were searched by a commercial microELISA kit (Euroimmun, Germany). The statistical evaluation was performed with Pearson's chi-square test, Student's t-test, and Fisher's exact test. Total ACAs positivity rate of 60 patients with chronic HDV infection, was found as 13.3%, in which four of the patients were positive for only ACA IgM, while four was positive for only IgG. Positivity for both ACA IgG and ACA IgM could not be detected in these patients. No patients in the control group had positivity for ACAs (IgG and/or IgM). A statistically significant difference was observed in terms of ACA positivity between patients with and without HDV infection (p0.05). After all, there was no statistically significant correlation between ACAs positivity and the age, sex, and laboratory parameters of the patients with chronic HDV infection, except lower serum albumin levels (p= 0.004). Although the data of this study revealed a statistically significant positive correlation between chronic HDV infection and anticardiolipin antibodies, it is clear that there is a need for further studies on this subject.

"Anti-HBc alone" which is an unusual serologic pattern of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections, may be detected in the seropositive samples for hepatitis C virus (HCV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections and in the presence of autoantibodies due to cross reactions. In this study, 20 serum samples with isolated antibody to hepatitis B core antigen, which were detected in May 2005, have been investigated by means of the presence of some autoantibodies (anti-nuclear antibody; ANA and rheumatoid factor; RF), anti-HCV and anti-HIV, in the Central Laboratory of Dicle University Medical School. All of the "anti-HBc alone" samples were negative for HBV-DNA by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and liver enzyme (ALT and AST) levels were normal except for three patients. As a result, a total of six (30%) samples were found positive. Four of them were positive for ANA and two were positive for anti-HCV, while one serum yielded positivity for both ANA and anti-HCV. Anti-HCV positive samples were searched for the presence of HCV-RNA by real-time PCR, and none were found positive. Of three patients with increased AST and ALT levels, one was anti-HCV positive, one was ANA positive, while the other was negative for all parameters. In conclusion, possible presence of autoantibodies and anti-HCV should be taken into consideration during the evaluation of isolated anti-HBc IgG positive test results.