[Prevalence of hepatitis B antibodies in health-care workers in Yasuj Hospitals]

Hepatitis B is a common infection in the world and one of the main health problems in our country. Over 350 million people are infected with Hepatitis B virus in the world and are chronic carriers of this infection. Health care workers are at risk of infection with blood born viruses including hepatitis B [HBV]. This study was conducted to find out the rate of anti-HBs antibodies among the health-care workers [HCW] in Yasuj hospitals, Southwest of Iran. This is a cross sectional descriptive study in which 212 staff was randomly selected from different wards of the hospitals in Yasuj. Blood samples were taken from each individual and tested for hepatitis B surface antibody [anti-HBs] by ELISA. Those who had anti-HBs titer > 10 IU/ml were considered as positive. Collected data were analyzed by SPSS software using descriptive data analysis and chi-square test. 61.3% of the subjects were female and 38.7% were male. 93.9% of the subjects had a history of one to three doses of hepatitis B vaccination. Results of this study showed that 185 [87.3%] of the staff have anti hepatitis B antibodies [Anti-HBs]. Among the staff that was negative for anti-HBs antibody, 12 had a history of hepatitis B vaccination [at least one dose]. Female employees were more positive than males [93% vs. 78%] and this difference was statistically significant [p<0.05]. Moreover, a positive correlation was found between the titer of antibody and sex where females had a higher titer of antibody in comparison with males [p<0.05]. No correlation was found between the workplace of HCW and positive anti-HBS. Result of this study indicates that more than 85 percent of the health-care workers in Yasuj have reasonable immunity against hepatitis B infection. A small proportion of HCWs had no immunity against HBV. The second course of hepatitis B vaccine should be delivered to those who had no immunity against hepatitis B despite their receiving the first course of vaccination

[Effect of date extract on growth of mutans streptococci, the most important factor of dental caries]

Dental caries is perhaps the most common bacterial infections in humans and Streptococcus mutans is one of the most important factors in dental caries. Research has shown that some kind foods have an inhibitory effect on cariogenic factors of Mutans streptococci. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of date extract on growth of Streptococcus Mutans. This experimental study was done at faculty of medicine, Yasuj university of medical sciences with collaborative of microbiology department of Shiraz university of medical sciences in 2005. In an in-vitro study, effect of date extract on growth of Mutans Streptococci was surveyed .After collecting of Streptococcus Mutans from dental caries; those were cultured in different medium of date fruit, extract of date fruit and syrup of date with different concentrations. Following 24 hours, Streptococcus mutans was grown in less concentration of date mediums and its grown was inhibited in more concentrations. With respect of inhibitory effect of date extract on growth of Streptococcus mutans, it might be introduced that date as a source of food has a preventive effect on dental caries