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Introduction : Acute gastroenteritis is a typical disorder that accounts for 8-12% of pediatric outpatient visits. Campylobacter and Salmonella infections account for about 8.4% and 11% of global diarrhea cases. Due to the importance of these bacteria in pediatric diseases, the aim of this study was to determine the infectious rate of Salmonella and Campylobacter species and also the frequency of the gene encoding Cytholethal distending toxin in children with community-acquired diarrhea. Materials and Methods: Stool samples of children under 5 years of age with diarrhea were collected. The samples were related to children referred to hospitals in Hamadan, Ardabil, Bandar Abbas and two hospitals in Tehran. DNA was extracted from the samples using a DNA extraction kit from stool. The presence of Campylobacter in the studied samples was detected by polymerase chain reaction using specific primers. A control stool sample was spiked with 10-fold dilution of C. jejuni suspension for LOD (detection limit determination) measurement. Results: In this study, PCR results showed a LOD of 100 CFU per gram in the spiked feces sample. Accordingly, out of 144 fecal samples of children with acute diarrhea, one case was positive for Campylobacter jejuni;this sample was also positive for the presence of cdtB gene. Presence of Salmonella was confirmed in two samples of the patients (1.4%). Conclusion: Low prevalence of Campylobacter and Salmonella was detected in symptomatic children under 5 years of age during the Covid-19 pandemic. Examination of these samples for viruses and other microbial agents can clarify the etiology of diarrhea in children referred to the hospitals.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Acute gastroenteritis is a typical disorder that accounts for 8-12% of pediatric outpatient visits. Campylobacter and Salmonella infections account for about 8.4% and 11% of global diarrhea cases. Due to the importance of these bacteria in pediatric diseases, the aim of this study was to determine the infectious rate of Salmonella and Campylobacter species and also the frequency of the gene encoding Cytholethal distending toxin in children with community-acquired diarrhea. Material(s) and Method(s): Stool samples of children under 5 years of age with diarrhea were collected. The samples were related to children referred to hospitals in Hamadan, Ardabil, Bandar Abbas and two hospitals in Tehran. DNA was extracted from the samples using a DNA extraction kit from stool. The presence of Campylobacter in the studied samples was detected by polymerase chain reaction using specific primers. A control stool sample was spiked with 10-fold dilution of C. jejuni suspension for LOD (detection limit determination) measurement. Result(s): In this study, PCR results showed a LOD of 100 CFU per gram in the spiked feces sample. Accordingly, out of 144 fecal samples of children with acute diarrhea, one case was positive for Campylobacter jejuni;this sample was also positive for the presence of cdtB gene. Presence of Salmonella was confirmed in two samples of the patients (1.4%). Conclusion(s): Low prevalence of Campylobacter and Salmonella was detected in symptomatic children under 5 years of age during the Covid-19 pandemic. Examination of these samples for viruses and other microbial agents can clarify the etiology of diarrhea in children referred to the hospitals. Copyright © 2022, Semnan University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved.
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Background and Aim: The objective of this study was to determine the seroepidemiological history of SARS-CoV-2 infection among asymptomatic children in Tehran. Materials and Methods: Blood samples of children younger than 14 years old were collected during the period autumn-winter 2020 and spring 2021 and tested for SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody using the EUROIMMUN ELISA kit. In addition, questionnaires were used to collect demographic and infection status information in the participants. Data were analyzed using the SPSS software.
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Due to our mistake in entering the affiliation and name of Mojgan Sarmadi in our article (Article ID: 110201, DOI: 10.5812/pedinfect.110201), we would like to apologize for any inconvenience made to our author and her affiliated organization, which is "National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, Oral Immunity and Infection Unit, Oral and Pharyngeal Cancer Branch, National Institute of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, US". We declare the correct affiliation of Mojgan Sarmadi is a private practice. © 2022, Author(s).
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Context: During the past three decades, the Middle East has experienced three major viral epidemics. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a pulmonary disease which has been first reported in China in the early third decade of the 21st century and quickly infected people in Asia, the Middle East, and the entire world. This pandemic is life-threatening and has caused widespread financial losses;however, the exact extent of the damage is still unclear. Evidence Acquisition: This review study aimed to present the latest on the COVID-19 symptoms, pathogenicity, host immune responses, etiology and epidemiology, transmission routes in the Middle Eastern countries, especially Iran, and the role this country plays in the spread of the disease. The search was conducted using Google scholar, PubMed, Scopus, and ISI Web of Science to identify relevant studies published from 2019 to 2021.
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Context: In the era of the SARS-CoV-2 virus pandemic, new scoring systems need to be developed to estimate the risk of COVID-19 complications aiding in the accurate prognosis. Improved scoring systems by combining multiple variables allow clinicians to optimize the allocation of limited medical resources for the best clinical outcomes. Methods: Published articles were selected that assessed the relationship between clinical, para-clinical, demographics, comorbidities, and outcomes of COVID-19 patients in a systematic review to develop a novel scoring system. Results: In this study, by summarizing the results of 97 studies and the experiences of experts, prognostic factors were determined and divided into four groups: Age, clinical symptoms, co-morbidities, and tests. Twenty-three published articles met the selection criteria and were included in this study. Accordingly, by the opinion of experts, prognostic factors were categorized into four main groups: Age, clinical symptoms, co-morbidities, and specific test results. Conclusions: This novel scoring model helps physicians to early identify critical COVID-19 patients and optimize patient management based on recent comprehensive data of the most significant predictive factors.
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From an international law point of view, the covid-19 pandemic could be described as a 'disaster' which has led to various calls especially from the UN system for harmonized international cooperation and global solidarity. This article focuses on the meaning of 'solidarity' in the context of international human rights, and elaborates on the implications of solidarity on the international law of humanitarian assistance in the current situation of the coronavirus outbreak. © 2020
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Context: This scoping review tries to synthesize early findings on the immunopathogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 to assess the emerging therapies and vaccines by evaluating their impact based on the mechanism of pathogenicity. Methods: The three databases of PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar were searched from January 1, 2020, to March 15, 2020. To extract the results from the studies, the content, thematic analysis method was used. In this method, the topics studied were coded in the articles, and then major topics related to the articles were determined. After identifying major issues, the contents of the articles were reviewed. Results: A total of 2,250 articles were retrieved after deleting duplications, and after reviewing the thematic relevance, 45 of them were selected for the final analysis. Topics studied in the articles were classified into four main areas, including “virus entry inhibi-tion and immune response”, “vaccine and treatment targets”, “genome structure similarity to other coronaviruses,” and “pathogen-sis”. Conclusions: Results of this review showed that we have a long way to develop an effective and safe vaccine due to the structural and behavioral complexities of this virus. In the meantime, the scientific community should use results of megatrials, but until their accomplishing them, we have to use results of systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials.
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The laboratory diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 should be done to confirm coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in suspected patients. Although several diagnostic methods have been developed in this regard, their accuracy for clinical application is not very clear yet. To compare the diagnostic value of laboratory tests for the detection of COVID-19 infection, this study provides an upcoming review of the newly developed detection methods. Sensitivity, specificity, detection limit, and turn-around-time of these methods are compared and challenges for their application in clinical settings are reviewed. PubMed and Google Scholar web sites were used for the systematic search until April 9, 2020 to identify the published studies based on the following keywords: "Detection", "Coro-navirus 2019", "SARS-CoV-2", and "Sensitivity". Out of 526 results, a total of 54 articles, including 46 studies on detection methods, were considered eligible for the review. The results showed that most of the proposed tests focused on molecular methods, while immunological and point-of-care tests were investigated in 13 studies. There were also a few commercial automated methods for the qualitative detection of SARS-CoV-2 in clinical samples, most of which are not examined in the current review, as no data about their sensitivity and specificity were presented. Although the assessment of publication biases showed that 64% sensitivity and nearly 100% specificity for RT-PCR are close to reality, most of the related reports for serological methods are not valid and further studies are needed to confirm their utility in clinical settings. Moreover, the RT-PCR test alone cannot act as a gold standard because of bias in measurements. Therefore, antibody tests and other proposed methods could be used as supplementary diagnostic tests to improve RT-PCR accuracy. Although clinical findings are invaluable, in many cases, they can provide more valuable supportive data than serological tests. Copyright © 2020, Author(s).