ABSTRACT
Background & objectives: Scrub typhus caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi presents as acute undifferentiated fever and can be confused with other infectious causes of fever. We studied scrub typhus as part of a study on hospital-based surveillance of zoonotic and vector-borne zoonotic diseases at a tertiary care hospital located in the Wardha district, Maharashtra, India. We report here descriptive epidemiology and climatic factors affecting scrub typhus. Methods: Patients of any age and sex with fever of ?5 days were enrolled for this study. Data on sociodemographic variables were collected by personal interviews. Blood samples were tested by IgM ELISA to diagnose scrub typhus. Confirmation of scrub typhus was done by indirect immunofluorescence assay for IgM (IgM IFA). The climatic determinants were determined using time-series Poisson regression analysis. Results: It was found that 15.9 per cent of the study participants were positive for scrub typhus by IgM ELISA and IgM IFA, both. Positivity was maximum (23.0%) in 41-60 yr of age and more females were affected than males (16.6 vs. 15.5%). Farmworkers were affected more (23.6%) than non-farm workers (12.9%). The disease positivity was found to be high in monsoon and post-monsoon seasons (22.9 and 19.4%) than in summer and winter. Interpretation & conclusions: There were three hot spots of scrub typhus in urban areas of Wardha district. Rainfall and relative humidity in the previous month were the significant determinants of the disease
ABSTRACT
An AIDS patient was admitted to a tertiary care hospital in central India with fever, weight loss, breathlessness, night sweats, diarrhoea, BMI 14kg/m2, Hemoglobin 8gm% and CD4 counts 120 cells/cumm. His blood culture by BACTEC 460 TB system revealed Mycobacterium avium bacteremia and stool culture grew Mycobacterium avium and mycobacterium wolinskyi.
ABSTRACT
Background and Methodolgoy: Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) has not been reported as an opportunistic pathogen among patients with AIDS in the Indian subcontinent. Blood samples were cultured for mycobacteria using BACTEC 460TB system from 71 HIV seropositive and 33 seronegative patients, tested at Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Sevagam between August 2001 and December 2002. Results: MAC and M. simiae were isolated from three patients each. All the six patients with mycobacteremia were AIDS cases. Clinically, none of them was diagnosed as a case of mycobacteremia. However, laboratory results confirmed the dissemination of MAC and M. simiae among these patients. Conclusion: These results confirm that disseminated MAC and M. simiae disease exist among AIDS patients in India also.
ABSTRACT
Objective: Paraffin slide culture method (PSC) was used to isolate Non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) from stool and sputum samples of HIV seropositive and negative patients. Material & Methods: Eighty stool and forty two sputum samples from both symptomatic or asymptomatic HIV sero-positive patients; and 40 stool and 128 sputum samples from symptomatic but HIV seronegative patients were cultured by PSC to assess its utility in isolating NTM from the clinical specimens. The samples were simultaneously processed by culture on Lowenstein Jensen (LJ) medium for comparison with regard to isolation rate, isolation time and contamination rate. Results: The PSC proved to be as good as LJ in isolating NTM from clinical specimens and, in addition, had the advantage of in situ staining for acid fast bacilli and lower contamination rate. The PSC was also used for typing NTM by biochemical tests.