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Introduction The human population is aging at an astonishing rate. The aim of this study is to capture a situation snapshot revealing the proportion of individuals aged 65 years and over among inpatients in healthcare institutions in Turkey and the prevalence and type of infections in this patient group in order to draw a road map. Materials and Methods Hospitalized patients over 65 years at any of the 62 hospitals in 29 cities across Turkey on February 9, 2017 were included in the study. Web-based SurveyMonkey was used for data recording and evaluation system. Results Of 17,351 patients 5871 (33.8%) were ≥65 years old. The mean age was 75.1 ± 7.2 years; 3075 (52.4%) patients were male. Infection was reason for admission for 1556 (26.5%) patients. Pneumonia was the most common infection. The median length of hospital stay was 5 days (IQR: 2–11 days). The Antibiotic therapy was initiated for 2917 (49.7%) patients at the time of admission, and 23% of the antibiotics prescribed were inappropriate. Healthcare-associated infections developed in 1059 (18%) patients. Urinary catheters were placed in 2388 (40.7%) patients with 7.5% invalid indication. Conclusion This study used real data to reveal the proportion of elderly patients in hospital admissions. The interventions done, infections developed during hospitalization, length of hospital stay, and excessive drug load emphasize the significant impact on health costs and illustrate the importance of preventive medicine in this group of patients.

Objectives: Chronic hepatitis C (CHC) is now a more curable disease with new direct acting antivirals (DAA). Although high sustained virologic response rates, failures still occur in DAA regimens. Our objective in this study was to characterize the real-life presence of clinically relevant resistance - associated substitutions (RASs) in the HCV NS5A gene in CHC patients whose DAA regimen has failed. Methods: The study enrolled 53 CHC patients who experienced failure with DAA regimen as the prospective longitudinal cohort between 2017-2019. Genotypic resistance testing was performed via the viral population sequencing method and The Geno2pheno HCV tool was used for RAS analysis. Results: The most frequent failure category was relapse (88%) followed by non-responder (12%). For a total of 36% of patients, RASs was detected in NS5A, Y93H was the most detected RAS in GT1b infected patients (89%). Conclusions: This study establishes an HCV failure registry for Turkey in which samples were combined with clinical, virologic and molecular data of adult patients whose DAA therapy failed. RASs can occur in CHC patients with DAA treatment failures. Evaluation of RAS after DAA failure is very important before retreatment is initiated to prevent virologic failure. (C) 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases. WOS:000540737100014 32302766 Q2

It is known that inflammatory responses play an important role in the pathophysiology of COVID-19.In this study, we aimed to examine the role of kynurenine (KYN) metabolism on the severity of COVID-19 disease AQ5.Seventy COVID-19 patients of varying severity and 30 controls were included in the study. In addition to the classical laboratory parameters, KYN, tryptophan (TRP), kynurenic acid (KYNA), 3 hydroxykynurenine (3OHKYN), quinolinic acid (QA), and picolinic acid (PA) were measured with mass spectrometry.TRP, KYN, KYN:TRP ratio, KYNA, 3OHKYN, PA, and QA results were found to be significantly different in COVID-19 patients (p 0.001 for all). The KYN:TRP ratio and PA of severe COVID-19 patients was statistically higher than that of mild-moderate COVID-19 patients (p 0.001 for all). When results were examined, statistically significant correlations with KYN:TRP ratio, IL-6, ferritin, and procalcitonin were only found in COVID-19 patients. ROC analysis indicated that highest AUC values were obtained by KYN:TRP ratio and PA (0.751 vs 0.742). In determining the severity of COVID-19 disease, the odd ratios (and confidence intervals) of KYN:TRP ratio and PA levels that were adjusted according to age, gender, and comorbidity were determined to be 1.44 (1.1-1.87, p = 0.008) and 1.06 (1.02-1.11, p = 0.006), respectively.According to the results of this study, KYN metabolites play a role in the pathophysiology of COVID-19, especially KYN:TRP ratio and PA could be markers for identification of severe COVID-19 cases.

Malaria is still an important public health problem both in Turkey and worldwide. In this research, we examined the epidemiology of malaria using the data provided by the Malaria Control Unit of the Infectious Disease Division of Ordu Health Directory, from the years 2002 to 2011.The retrospective study was performed on data from the Provincial Health Directory. The cases were evaluated according to age groups, gender, locations, months and parasite species.In the last 10 year period, a total of 31,575 blood samples were evaluated and 6 malaria cases (0.02%) were detected. Positive cases were examined all patients aged 15 years old and over. Cases were found to be imported cases coming to Ordu from other countries. The agent in half of cases was found to be Plasmodium vivax; Plasmodium falciparum was determined in the other half. All P. falciparum cases were found to be imported cases coming to Ordu from abroad.In this study, determination of the state of information on malaria in Ordu was the target, with the aim of using these data to contribute to the epidemiological data of malaria in our country. In addition, the protective measures to be taken against the disease are thought to be helpful.

Hepatit A virüs (HAV) infeksiyonu dünyada ve ülkemizde yaygın olarak görülen önemli bir halk sağlığı sorunudur. Ciddi morbidite ve mortalite nedeni olabilen hastalığın yaygınlığı sosyo-ekonomik koşullarla ve çevresel faktörlerle yakından ilişkilidir. Bu çalışmada Eylül 2009-Eylül 2010 tarihleri arasında Ünye Devlet Hastanesi’ne başvuran ve çeşitli nedenlerle anti-HAV IgG tetkiki istenen toplam 728 hastanın sonuçları retrospektif olarak değerlendirilmiştir. Toplam 728 olgunun 412’si kız, 316’sı erkek olup, total seropozitiflik oranı %57.9 olarak tespit edilmiştir. Yaşa göre dağılımları incelendiğinde, anti-HAV IgG düzeyleri 0-23 ay arası; %50, 2-6 yaş arası; %29.2, 7-10 yaş arası; %17.2, 11-20 yaş arası; %37.5, 21-30 yaş arası; %74.4, 31-40 yaş arası; %93.7, 41-50 yaş arası; %96.3 oranında pozitif olarak saptanmıştır. Sosyoekonomik durumun iyileşmesiyle birlikte hastalığı geçirme geçmiş yıllara oranla ileri yaşlara kaymaktadır. İleri yaşlarda daha komplike seyredebildiği göz önüne alındığında adölesan, genç erişkin ve risk grubundaki bireylerin Hepatit A virüsü ile karşılaşma durumunun araştırılarak duyarlı bireylerin aşılanması uygun görünmektedir. Hepatitis A virus infection is a common public health problem in our country and in the world. As one of the serious morbidity and mortality reason, HAV infection is in a strong relationship with social economic and environmental factors. In this study, 728 patients results were analyzed retrospectively who referred to Ünye State Hospital beetween September 2009 and September 2010. Among the 728 patients, three hundred and sixteen of patients were male and four hundred and twelve were female and the total seropositivity rate was 57.9% of all patients. Anti-HAV IgG positivity rate examined by age, was 50% in 0-23monts, 29.2% in 2-6 years, 17.2% in 7- 10 years, 37.5% in 11-20 years, 74.4% in 31-40 years, 93.7% in 41-50 years. As social economic conditions are getting better, the disease is mostly seen in elderly. Adolescent and young adult people may be investigated against the risk of HAV infection and vaccination is recommended for that groups, since HAV infection complications may occur in elderly.

Aims: To assess diabetic patients’ knowledge and practices regarding foot care. Methods: This study was conducted as a cross-sectional study in 1030 patients between November 2017 and February 2018.The descriptive survey instrument was developed by the investigators. Survey content and format were based on prior surveys and guidelines. The survey sought socio-demographic characteristics of the patients and the level of knowledge about diabetic foot care practice. Results: 29.5% of patients had bad foot care, 49.6% of patients had moderate foot care and 20.8% of patients had good foot care. There were no significant differences between patient groups in regard to age, gender, foot infection history and having undergone amputation surgery. We found that patients who good at foot care had higher education status (p < 0.001), were more likely live in a city (p < 0.001), had higher income (p < 0.001), had been trained about foot care (p < 0.001) and were more likely to have type I DM (p = 0.015). Disease duration was longer in those who had good foot care compared to the other groups (p = 0.010). Conclusions: The mean knowledge and practice scores of our patients were moderate, indicating that much is to be done for the education of patients on this matter. We also found that knowledge about the importance of this practice, education status and disease duration had significant influence on the practice of foot-care in patients with DM. © 2019 Primary Care Diabetes Europe