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Background and Objectives: The association between bacterial vaginosis and urinary tract infection (UTI) in pregnant women is at a greater risk comparatively than patients with bacterial vaginosis or UTI. Bacterial vaginosis and asymptomatic UTI both pose risk for mother and fetus. Early diagnosis and treatment can save the life of both. The present investigation was aimed to find out the magnitude of asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnant women with noticeable bacterial vaginitis attending antenatal outpatient and inpatient of a tertiary care hospital and to identify the organisms causing it. Materials and Methods: A total of 117 antenatal women from different age and parity groups with different gestational ages were included in the study. The samples were subjected to standard microbiological techniques for identification of microorganisms. While performing Per speculum examination, vaginal secretions were collected from the posterior fornix. Swabs from the posterior fornix were tested for pH using litmus paper. A wet mount and Gram smear was made and examined for the presence of bacteria, polymorphs and clue cells indicating bacterial vaginosis. Amsel’s criteria and Nugent scoring system were applied for diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis. Antibiotic susceptibility of the isolated bacteria was performed using Kirby-Bauer method. Results: Bacterial vaginosis infection rate (62.3%) was common in the present study followed by asymptomatic UTI (n=60, 51%). It was also observed that asymptomatic urinary tract infection (UTI) with Bacterial vaginosis prevalent rate was 49 (41.8%) in the current study. Conclusion: Bacterial vaginosis was more common than asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnant women. It is recommended that antenatal health care facilities should incorporate screening of vaginitis among pregnant women to prevent the complications of pregnancy. And those women with Bacterial vaginosis should be screened for UTI. Proper use of antibiotics should be encouraged, abuse of antibiotics should be in check.

Purulent wound infections are quite complicated to manage because of multidrug resistant bacteria. The main purpose of the present study was to assess the prevalence, microbiological profile and antibiograms of aerobic bacteria isolated from pus samples. One hundred pus sam-ples sent to the microbiology laboratory from surgical departments over a period of six months were analyzed. Isolation and detection of culture isolates was done by using standard bacteriological techniques and antibiotic susceptibility testing was performed by disc diffusion method by following CLSI guidelines on Muller-Hinton (MH) agar. Highest number of pus samples were from incision and drainage (23.8%) followed by chronic non-healing ulcer (19.04%). Twenty one different bacterial isolates were obtained from one hundred pus samples. S. aureus was the predominant bacteria (28.5%) followed by coagulase-negative Staphylococci (23.8%). The results of the antibiotics susceptibility testing illustrated that majority of the isolated organisms were MDR. S. aureus showed highest sensitivity to antibiotics like linezolid (83.3%) and teicoplanin (50%). Among the five isolated strains of coagulase-negative Staphylococci (CONS), three of them were MDR and the other two showed sensitivity to antibiotics cefaperazone, co-trimoxazole and ticarcillin/clavulanic acid (20%). Among the 9 isolates of Enterobacteriaceae, one isolate of E. coli (11.1%), two isolates of Klebsiella species (22.2%) showed ESBL pro-duction. The isolated four strains of P. aeruginosa showed ESBL pro-duction (44.4%) by CAZ/CA antibiotic susceptibility testing. These or-ganisms were screened for carbapenemase production through Modified Hodge test, 5 strains possess carbapenemase enzyme pro-duction (71.4%) and thus acquire resistance to carbapenem antibiotics. Carbapenemase production was not detected in the 2 isolates of P. aeruginosa among the 4 tested strains. The overall results showed that 85% of the isolated strains showed MDR to certain classes of antibiotics. [J Med Allied Sci 2018; 8(1.000): 26-35]

Introduction: Occurrence of detectable amounts of viral antigen or viral particles in the blood of infected patients with Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a significant characteristic of HBV infection. Detection of HBV antigen or its DNA among individuals of a community is a crucial factor to know the burden of HBV infection. Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) is a suitable marker of HBV infection but a poor indicator of infectivity since its presence is not a direct measure of the presence of viable virions. Hence the tests for the detection of HBV DNA or HBsAg are used. The measurement of HBV DNA in serum has become the main tool to identify viral load, to monitor patients’ therapy and to predict whether antiviral therapy would be successful or not. Methods: The present study was designated to identify HBV infected individuals among adolescent age group by using combined methods namely, rapid immunoassay technique for HBsAg detection (HEPACARD) and Conventional Polymerase Chain reaction (PCR) analysis for HBV DNA detection. Results: Serum samples from 39 patients suspected of HBV infection were tested for the presence of HBsAg and HBV DNA. Eight specimens (20%) were positive for HBsAg as well as HBV DNA using PCR reaction. The ratio of spectrophotometric analysis of the extracted DNA samples was between 1.80-1.92 indicating a highly purified DNA. The gel electrophoresis of amplified PCR products of HBV DNA revealed a single 524 bp band in the test samples. Conclusion: Screening for HBV infection among adolescents by HEPACARD and further confirmation by PCR is recommended to monitor the progression of the disease and antiviral treatment.

The aim of this study was to investigate the COVID-19 vaccination acceptance rate and its determinants among healthcare workers in a multicenter study. This was a cross-sectional multi-center survey conducted from February 5 to April 29, 2021 . The questionnaire consisted of 26 items in 6 subscales. The English version of the questionnaire was translated into seven languages and distributed through Google Forms using snowball sampling; a colleague in each country was responsible for the forward and backward translation, and also the distribution of the questionnaire. A forward stepwise logistic regression was utilized to explore the variables and questionnaire factors tied to the intention to COVID-19 vaccination. 4630 participants from 91 countries completed the questionnaire. According to the United Nations Development Program 2020, 43.6 % of participants were from low Human Development Index (HDI) regions, 48.3 % high and very high, and 8.1 % from medium. The overall vaccination hesitancy rate was 37 %. Three out of six factors of the questionnaire were significantly related to intention to the vaccination. While 'Perceived benefits of the COVID-19 vaccination' (OR: 3.82, p-value<0.001) and 'Prosocial norms' (OR: 5.18, p-value<0.001) were associated with vaccination acceptance, 'The vaccine safety/cost concerns' with OR: 3.52, p-value<0.001 was tied to vaccination hesitancy. Medical doctors and pharmacists were more willing to take the vaccine in comparison to others. Importantly, HDI with OR: 12.28, 95 % CI: 6.10-24.72 was a strong positive determinant of COVID-19 vaccination acceptance. This study highlighted the vaccination hesitancy rate of 37 % in our sample among HCWs. Increasing awareness regarding vaccination benefits, confronting the misinformation, and strengthening the prosocial norms would be the primary domains for maximizing the vaccination coverage. The study also showed that the HDI is strongly associated with the vaccination acceptance/ hesitancy, in a way that those living in low HDI contexts are more hesitant to receive the vaccine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]