Molecular Diagnosis of an Ocular Toxocariasis Patient in Vietnam

An ocular Toxocara canis infection is reported for the first time in Vietnam. A 34-year-old man residing in a village of Son La Province, North Vietnam, visited the National Eye Hospital (NEH) in August 2011. He felt a bulge-sticking pain in his left eye and loss of vision occurred over 3 months before visiting the hospital. The eye examination in the hospital showed damage of the left eye, red eye, retinal fibrosis, retinal detachment, inflammation of the eye tissues, retinal granulomas, and a parasitic cyst inside. A larva of Toxocara was collected with the cyst by a medical doctor by surgery. Comparison of 264 nucleotides of internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) of ribosomal DNA was done between our Vietnamese Toxocara canis and other Toxocara geographical isolates, including Chinese T. canis, Japanese T. canis, Sri Lankan T. canis, and Iranian T. canis. The nucleotide homology was 97-99%, when our T. canis was compared with geographical isolates. Identification of a T. canis infection in the eye by a molecular method was performed for the first time in Vietnam.

An Outbreak of Trichinosis with Molecular Identification of Trichinella sp. in Vietnam

The 5th outbreak of trichinosis occurred in a mountainous area of North Vietnam in 2012, involving 24 patients among 27 people who consumed raw pork together. Six of these patients visited several hospitals in Hanoi for treatment. Similar clinical symptoms appeared in these patients within 5-8 days after eating infected raw pork, which consisted of fever, muscle pain, difficult moving, edema, difficult swallowing, and difficult breathing. ELISA revealed all (6/6) positive reactions against Trichinella spiralis antigen and all cases showed positive biopsy results for Trichinella sp. larvae in the muscle. The larvae detected in the patients were identified as T. spiralis (Vietnamese strain) by the molecular analysis of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit III (cox3) gene.

Endoscopy sinus surgery in Post Hospital II from 2/2003 to 6/2005

314 patients (177 male, 137 female) underwent endoscopy sinus surgery in Post Hospital II from February 2003 to June 2005. Results: endoscopy surgery combined to medicament in the treatment of chronic sinus had good results (86.3%) with less complications, recovered lesions and maintained physiological function of sinus mucous. Postoperative care is simple; treatment duration is short, low cost.

Using FAB and PYG in coordinating with PCR on culturing, isolating and identifying enterotoxigenic bacteroides fragilis

The result of the study of using FAB and PYG in isolation and identification of ETBF from fecal samples were as follows: FAB medium had more advantages as compared to PYG. Together with using FAB, the PCR method can differentiate and identity ETBF from the B. fragilis species. The detection limit of PCR was 103 CFU of bacteria per ml of fecal suspension. Among 27 B. fragilis trains, 66% of them were positive with primer pair GBF 201-210 by PCR. The findings showed that ETBF can be detected by culturing samples in FAB together with identification by PCR. More studies could be done for detecting ETBF from fecal samples, especially from diarrhea patients

Distribution of serogroups of 162 diarrheagenic E.coli strains isolated from children under five in Ha Noi

E. coli is an emerging diarrheagenic pathogen. Serotyping is important to identify bacteria and trace their epidemiology. Objectives: (1) To identify the distribution of serogroup O among 4 kinds of diarrheagenic E. coli strains isolated from children with and without diarrhea in Hanoi, Vietnam. (2)To find out the relationship between serogroup O and different diarrheagenic E. coli. Method: One hundred and sixty-two strains of diarrheagenic E. coli including 86 EAEC, 50 EPEC, 12 EIEC, and 14 ETEC have been serotyped by slide agglutination with antisera specific for O serogroups. Results: More than 60% of the strains were serotyped. Serogroup O25 was the most common with the prevalence of 16.7% followed by O15 (4.3%). The other serogroups (O127a, O128, O126, O6, and O16) were seen in very few numbers. 38.3% of E. coli strains were not serotypeable with available antisera. EAEC were the most prevalent among diarrheagenic E. coli and 25.6% of them belong to the serogroup O25. Conclusion: 60% of the diarrheagenic E. coli strains were serotyped. Serogroup 025 was the most common. The findings were very useful for assessing the distribution of serogroups of diarrheagenic E. coli and will be useful for future vaccine development.