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Objectives: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is opportunistic gram-negative bacillus and a major human pathogen belongs to family Pseudomonadaceae, it causes several nosocomial infections including pneumonia, urinary tract, surgical sites, otitis externa, and soft tissues. Methods: The study was conducted from April 2021 to January 2022 and involved the prevalence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates and their susceptibility to different antimicrobial agents among patients and healthcare workers specimens in three hospitals of Duhok city. The collected specimens were examined and cultured on different media in the Advanced Microbiology Laboratory, Azadi teaching hospital. The isolated bacteria were identified according to their morphological and biochemical properties. Results: Out of 324 specimens, 29.32% (95/324) of the isolates were identified as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, isolated from 26.89% patients and 40% healthcare workers. Regarding isolate rates among specimens, the highest rate (48.78%) was from sputum, with a highly significant (P < 0.001) difference from other sources. Females had a non-significantly higher isolate rate than males (28.19% vs 25.22%), ages, > 50 years had the highest isolate rate (72.88%), while the lowest rate 6.25% was among ages > 10-20 years, with highly significant (P < 0.001) differences among them. Specimens from Heevi hospital showed a non-significantly higher isolate rate (28.57%) than other hospitals. Isolates highest susceptibility was to Colistin (88.7%)-followed by Imipenem (78.9%), while they were 98.6% resistant to ampicillin and 100% resistant to Amoxicillin, Erythromycin and Trimethoprim/Sulfamethoxazole. A high rate of extensively drug-resistant (19.72%) Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates was documented among patients who attended these hospitals with the highest (31.25%) from wounds. Conclusion: These findings will be helpful to advise treatment with appropriate antibiotic strategy against multi- and extensively drugresistant P. aeruginosa to cope with the chances of evolving resistant pathogens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cryptosporidiosis caused by species belongs to genus Cryptosporidium. Cryptosporidiosis is a zoonotic disease that affects both animals and humans, making it a major public health and veterinary concern. A cross sectional study was performed during the period from August 2021 to March2022, to estimate the prevalence of Cryptosporidium spp. in the human population in order to determine the effect of associated risk factors on the rate of infection in Zakho district, Duhok. Seven hundred Fecal specimens were collected from Zakho General Hospital and two primary schools located in suburban area of Zakho city. The collected stool specimens were examined macroscopically and microscopically using a modified Ziehl-Neelsen staining method. Cryptosporidium infection was found in 87.57% (613/700) of the examined specimens. Males showed slightly a higher infection rate than females (88.4% vs. 85.5%) with nonsignificant difference (P > 0.05). age group (31-41 years) showed highest rates, with significant difference (P<0.05). The highest rates of infection were reported among families with 6-10 members, people drinking unfiltered municipal tap water, suburban residents, those with close contacts with domestic animals, and illiterate people. The control of this disease necessitates the improvement of living conditions, providing potable clean water and disseminating health education programs among the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study involved the estimation of the prevalence of Entamoeba spp. using microscopy and molecular techniques among symptomatic outpatients during April 2021 to March, 2022. Stool samples were collected from 2592 outpatients with amoebiasis symptoms of both sexes and different ages (≤ l to 60). Also, 107 stool samples were taken randomly from asymptomatic individuals and examined microscopically to detect infection with Entamoeba spp. the positive specimens were used for molecular analysis with positive symptomatic samples targeting the 18S rRNA gene by nested PCR. Microscopically 21.68% (562/2592) were positive, for Entamoeba spp. Males showed highest infection rate than females (67.43% vs 32.56%). Ages from 1-10 years showed the highest rate (54.09%), and urban inhabitant had somewhat a higher rate than rural one (58.54% vs 41.45%) which was statistically non-significant(P>0.05). Among asymptomatic individuals, 57% (61/107) were positive for Entamoeba spp. Nested PCR analysis yielded 73% positive samples for Entamoeba spp. with a fragment size of 897 bp. Three fragment sizes were produced, for E. histolytica, E. dispar and E. moshkovskii which were 439, 174 and 553 bps, respectively. Single infection occurred with, E. histolytica in 46%, of symptomatic and 6% of asymptomatic cases, E. dispar in 38% of asymptomatic and 10% of symptomatic cases, E. moshkovskii, reported at very low rate among both groups.