Antibiotic susceptibility patterns of bacterial isolates of patients with upper respiratory tract infections

Abstract To evaluate the antibiotic susceptibility patterns in URTIs reporting to tertiary hospitals of Lahore. A cross-sectional study employing 259 culture sensitivity reports obtained from tertiary care hospitals of Lahore. Using SPSS, descriptive statistics were used to estimate frequencies and percentages. In URTIs, S. aureus (5%) was the frequent gram-positive isolate followed by MRSA (1.5%) and MSSA (1.5%), while P. aeruginosa (15.8%) was the prevalent gram-negative isolate followed by Klebsiella (13.1%) and E. coli (6.9%). Against P. aeruginosa, ceftazidime (7.7%), cefuroxime/ceftriaxone (4.6%), amoxicillin (4.3%) and ciprofloxacin (4.2%), were tested resistant, while imipenem (11.2%), ciprofloxacin (9.2%), amikacin (9.2%), meropenem/ levofloxacin/gentamicin (8.1%) and piptaz (6.9%) were found sensitive. Against Klebsiella, carbepenems (7.3%), amikacin (6.5%), ciprofloxacin (5.4%) and gentamicin (5%) were tested sensitive, whereas, ceftazidime (8.5%), ceftriaxone (5.8%), cefaclor (5.5%), ampicillin (4.6%), co-amoxiclave (4.2%) and ciftazidime/ciprofloxacin (3.8%) were found resistant. Overall, imipenem (35%), meropenem (30.8%) and amikacin (31.9%) were the three most sensitive antibiotics, while ceftazidime (25.4%), ceftriaxone (19.2%) and ampicillin (18.5%) were the three most resistant antibiotics. Data suggested that P.aeruginosa and Klebsiella, were the most frequent bacterial isolates in URTIs of Lahore. These isolates were resistant to ampicillin, cefuroxime and ceftazidime, but were sensitive to carbapenem and aminoglycosides

New Statistical Approaches for Modeling the COVID-19 Data Set: A Case Study in the Medical Sector

Statistical distributions have great applicability for modeling data in almost every applied sector. Among the available classical distributions, the inverse Weibull distribution has received considerable attention. In the practice of distribution theory, numerous methods have been studied and suggested/introduced to increase the flexibility level of the traditional probability distributions. In this paper, we implement different distribution methods to obtain five new different versions of the inverse Weibull model. The new modifications of the inverse Weibull model are called the logarithm transformed-inverse Weibull, a flexible reduced logarithmic-inverse Weibull, the weighted TX-inverse Weibull, a new generalized-inverse Weibull, and the alpha power transformed extended-inverse Weibull distributions. To illustrate the flexibility and applicability of the new modifications of the inverse Weibull model, a biomedical data set is analyzed. The data set consists of 108 observations and represents the mortality rate of the COVID-19-infected patients. The practical application shows that the new generalized-inverse Weibull is the best modification of the inverse Weibull distribution.

Birds carry a diversity of significant viruses in their virome (preprint)

Birds can carry and transmit viruses to humans and other animals. Thus, understanding the viral community hosted by birds could help us predict future outbreaks of human disease. A recent metagenomics study took a broad look at the viruses found in the gut of wild and captive birds. The dataset included samples from over 3,000 birds that represented over 87 species and 10 different phylogenetic orders and the researchers characterized genomes from numerous viral families including astroviruses, coronaviruses, parvoviruses, and adenoviruses. Examining trends, they found that wild birds had higher viral diversity than captive birds. There was also evidence of potential cross-species transmission between wild birds and domestic poultry. Further analysis of the viral genomic sequences revealed differences in virus distribution patterns between wild and captive birds. Different phylogenetic orders of birds and geographic sites also had distinct distribution patterns. Interestingly, there were no significant differences in virus distribution patterns between migratory and resident birds. While further studies are needed to explore the diversity and potential pathogenicity of these viruses in more detail, this study expanded our understanding of viral diversity in birds.

Virome in the cloaca of wild and breeding birds revealed a diversity of significant viruses.

BACKGROUND: Wild birds may harbor and transmit viruses that are potentially pathogenic to humans, domestic animals, and other wildlife. RESULTS: Using the viral metagenomic approach, we investigated the virome of cloacal swab specimens collected from 3182 birds (the majority of them wild species) consisting of > 87 different species in 10 different orders within the Aves classes. The virus diversity in wild birds was higher than that in breeding birds. We acquired 707 viral genomes from 18 defined families and 4 unclassified virus groups, with 265 virus genomes sharing < 60% protein sequence identities with their best matches in GenBank comprising new virus families, genera, or species. RNA viruses containing the conserved RdRp domain with no phylogenetic affinity to currently defined virus families existed in different bird species. Genomes of the astrovirus, picornavirus, coronavirus, calicivirus, parvovirus, circovirus, retrovirus, and adenovirus families which include known avian pathogens were fully characterized. Putative cross-species transmissions were observed with viruses in wild birds showing > 95% amino acid sequence identity to previously reported viruses in domestic poultry. Genomic recombination was observed for some genomes showing discordant phylogenies based on structural and non-structural regions. Mapping the next-generation sequencing (NGS) data respectively against the 707 genomes revealed that these viruses showed distribution pattern differences among birds with different habitats (breeding or wild), orders, and sampling sites but no significant differences between birds with different behavioral features (migratory and resident). CONCLUSIONS: The existence of a highly diverse virome highlights the challenges in elucidating the evolution, etiology, and ecology of viruses in wild birds. Video Abstract.

Impact of Heat Index and Ultraviolet Index on COVID-19 in Major Cities of Pakistan.

INTRODUCTION: The world population is under the grip of global pandemic of COVID-19. The present study analyzed relationship between meteorological parameters and COVID-19 in three major cities of Pakistan, that is, Karachi, Lahore, and Peshawar. METHODS: The impacts of heat index (HI) and ultraviolet index (UVI) over daily COVID-19 cases have examined to identify its transmission and propagation. The significance of basic reproductive number (R0), growth rate (Gr) and doubling time (Td) of COVID-19 with HI and UVI was determined. RESULTS: Both indices show a significant positive correlation (at 5% significance level) to R0, Td, and Gr of COVID-19 patients. Our results showed that the minimum threshold temperature of 33 °C for HI (with a positive variation of 3 °C to 5 °C) put a significant impact on new cases. CONCLUSION: HI and UVI impacted significantly to decline COVID-19 cases over the region.