Prevalence of Rotaviruses in the Etiology of Acute Diarrhea in Young Children, Clinical forms, Extraintestinal Manifestations and Complications.

Rotavirus is highly contagious factor with dominant feces-oral transmission. Because it is stable in external environment, transmission clusters are possible by close contact, ingestion of contaminated water or food or contact with contaminated surfaces. It survives within hours and days on hands and contaminated surfaces. This makes it the most common enteric and nosocomial pathogen in the world, especially in early childhood. In addition to the rapid dehydration with pronounced electrolyte disturbances, numerous extraintestinal possibilities have been recorded in the clinical picture, which emphasizes the need for prevention of this disease.In the period from 1.02.2018 to 31.01.2020 at the Clinic for Infectious diseases were treated 1060 patients with diarrheal disease, of which 502 children (47.36%). Rotavirus etiology was confirmed in 23.30% of the children. According to the protocols, laboratory and biochemical investigations were done to all 117 children, with tracking parameters and their dynamics of admission and discharge from the hospital. Most of the children, 84 (82.0 6%) are from urban areas, with a more confirmed epidemiological survey of 59 (42.00%). The average age of the children was 8 months, with a small percentage of children on maternal food (breastfed 25, i.e. 21.37%), with high febrile admission in 99% of children with an average temperature of 38.5oC and an average febrile duration of 4 days, with an average of 7 (+ 2.49) of stools and 5 (+ 2.12) of vomiting. There was a significant difference in hematocrit, leukocyte, electrolyte, glycaemia, and CRP values on admission and discharge. There was predominant isonatremic dehydration, and the compensatory mechanisms followed by the values of the electrolytes ABS, Ph, BE showed a tendency to maintain within the physiological limits. The clinical picture of extraintestinal manifestations included bronchitis, mesenteric lymphadenitis, upper respiratory infections and rash.Rotavirus infection is a serious health and economic problem in our country, so it needs continuous prevention and monitoring in order to reduce the incidence, and thus the need for hospitalization and cure of rotavirus disease.

Antimicrobial Susceptibility of Campylobacter isolates in the Capital of North Macedonia.

BACKGROUND: Campylobacter infections are typically self-limited, but in cases with severe enteritis, immuno-compromised system and bacteremia, an appropriate antimicrobial treatment is demanding. Our study aim was to determine the isolation rate of Campylobacter among patients with acute enteritis in the capital of North Macedonia and its antimicrobial susceptibility. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total number of 3820 patients clinically diagnosed as acute enteritis, were included in the study. Stool samples were collected and Campylobacter was isolated and identified by classical microbiological methods. Antimicrobial susceptibility of all isolates to Ceftriaxone, Amoxicillin-clavulonic acid, Erythromycin, Ciprofloxacin, Tetracycline and Gentamicin was determined by disc-diffusion technique. Additionally, minimal inhibitory concentrations of all Campylobacter isolates against erythromycin, ciprofloxacin and tetracycline were determined by Epsilon gradient tests. RESULTS: Campylobacter species was isolated in 97 patients. Although the mean isolation rate of Campylobacter spp. during the whole study period was 2.53%, a statistically significant increase was detected in 2016 and 2017, in comparison with the data from previous four years of the study. The isolation rate of Campylobacter spp. didn't reveal statistically significant difference between males and females (p > 0.05). 46.4 % of patients with Campylobacter enteritis were children at the age under 15 years. Forty-three C. jejuni isolates were susceptible to all six antibiotics, but the remaining 44 isolates revealed resistance to at least one antibiotic. C. coli isolates were resistant to 3 antibiotics simultaneously. Two C. coli isolates only, were susceptible to all 6 antibiotics. 40.90% of C. jejuni and 50% of C. coli isolates were resistant to beta-lactams, fluoroquinolones and tetracyclines, simultaneously. CONCLUSION: The increase of the isolation rate of Campylobacter from patients with acute enteritis indicates the need for permanent isolation and identification of Campylobacter from every clinically diagnosed patient, as acute enteritis. Erythromicin is the most effective antibiotic for treatment of Campylobacter enteritis in our patients. The high level of Campylobacter resistance to beta-lactams, fluoroquinolones and tetracyclines requires more rational approach in the treatment of Campylobacter enteritis.

Evidence Based Practice in Using Antibiotics for Acute Tonsillitis in Primary Care Practice.

The increased use of antibiotics for acute tonsillitis is a public health problem. 80% of the antibiotic prescriptions for acute tonsillitis are done in the Primary Care practice (PCP). The inappropriate use of the antibiotic causes bacterial resistance and treatment failure. Only patients with acute tonsillitis caused by Group A beta-hemolytic streptococcus (GAS) have benefit of the antibiotic treatment, which is a predict cause in 5-20%. In order to assess the antibiotic prescribing for acute tonsillitis by the doctors in the PCP in Macedonia we use the data from the national project about antibiotic prescribing for acute respiratory tract infections which was conducted in November 2014 during a period of 4 weeks as part of the E-quality program sponsored by the IPCRG. 86 general practitioners from Macedonia have participated. The group of 1768 patients, from 4 months to 88 years of age, with diagnosis of acute tonsillitis was analyzed. The antibiotic prescriptions according to the Centor score criteria were compared to the Cochran's guidelines which are translated and recommended as national guidelines. 88.8% of the patients with acute tonsillitis were treated with antibiotics, of which 52.9% with Centor score 0 to 2 were treated inappropriate. The diagnosis is mostly made based on the clinical picture and the symptoms. Only (23.6%) of the patients were treated with antibiotics (Penicillin V and cephalexin) according to the guidelines. We concluded that there is a low adherence to the national guidelines. The clinical assessment is not accurate in determining the etiology. Also, there is a high nonadherence in prescribing the first choice of antibiotics. We emphasize the need to change the general practitioners' prescription behavior according to the guidelines.

Gastrointestinal Colonization with Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci In Hospitalized and Outpatients.

BACKGROUND: The incidence of infection and intestinal colonization with vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE) is increasing in many countries in the last decade. Concerning the difficult antimicrobial treatment of infections caused by VRE, decreasing the incidence and prevalence of these infections is an important factor in VRE-induced morbidity and mortality control. AIM: To determine the prevalence of gastrointestinal colonization with vancomycin resistant enterococci in hospitalized and outpatients, and to determine the genetic base of the vancomycin resistance in VRE isolates. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Seven hundred and eighty stool specimens were investigated for the gastrointestinal carriage of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE). Susceptibility to vancomycin was tested in all isolates by disk-diffusion test and E-test (AB Biodisk, Sweden). Determined vancomycin resistant enterococci were than tested for detection of vanA, vanB and vanC genes by PCR. RESULTS: Vancomycin resistant strains of enterococci were isolated from 46 (16.1 %) of the 285 hospitalized patients and 5 (7.7 %) of the 65 patients living in the community (p < 0.05). The most of the highly resistant enterococci strains to vancomycin (95.2 %), were identified as E. faecium. Minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) to vancomycin in all 39 vanA genotypes of E. faecium and two vanA genotypes of E. fecalis were > 256 µg/ml. Three vanB genotypes of E. faecium and one vanB genotype of E. faecalis had MICs of 32 µg/ml. All six vanC genotypes of E. gallinarum had MICs of 8 µg/ml. All vanA genotypes of VRE were highly resistant to vancomycin, with MICs above 256 µg/ml. Three vanB genotypes of VR E. faecium and one VR E. fecalis were resistant, with MICs 32 µg/ml. vanC genotypes of VR E. gallinarum were intermediate resistant to vancomycin with MICs of 8 µg/ml. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of vancomycin resistant enterococci in Republic of Macedonia was 2-fold higher in hospitalized than in outpatients. VanA genotype was dominant in isolates of E. faecium and it was highly associated with the MIC values above the 256 µg/ml. Since most of the enterococcal infections are endogenous, there is a need for screening the colonization of patient's intestinal flora with VRE at the hospital entry. Identification and genotyping of faecal enterococci, together with their susceptibility testing to vancomycin, could be useful marker for the infection control.

Evaluation of a rotavirus acute gastroenteritis severity score in hospitalized children over a ten year period in a clinic of infectious diseases, Skopje, R. Macedonia.

UNLABELLED: Rotavirus infection is the most common viral infection of the gastrointestinal tract in children with the most severe clinical manifestations and rapidly progressive dehydration, especially in infancy and early childhood. Due to its characteristics of high contagiousness and being widespread in both developed countries and developing countries with a still high fatality rate, active prevention of the disease is recognized as the only successful measure for preventing severe forms of the disease. The assessment of the severity of the clinical picture with the corresponding severity scales, Vesikari or Clark, is essential for interpretation of the success of the applied vaccine. THE PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: A ten-year review of the frequency of appearance and laboratory features of Rotavirus Gastroenteritis in Paediatrics at the Infectious Diseases Clinic, Skopje, Macedonia. The goal of the study is to stress the constant presence of infection with severe clinical manifestations and the necessity of the introduction of vaccination. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Acute viral gastoenteritis patients were processed, whose clinical presentation indicated mandatory hospitalization. Biochemical laboratory parameters were required for all children, and they were grouped in appropriate severity groups depending on the values of the clinical parameters on the Vesikari and Clark scales. By taking a biochemical laboratory analysis using statistical methods we searched for an answer to whether and to what extent their values are predictive for assessment of the severity of the disease, and how much they influence the values in each of the scales. RESULTS: 1012 children at an average age of 19.51 months, treated from 2003 to 2012, tested with 12 parameters and grouped into scales, showed the existence of a correlation between the scales of 0.8277. Processing our results suggests the use of a modified Vesikari scale for clinical assessment of disease severity, and thus the ability to monitor the effectiveness of vaccination.

Impact of active female smoking on controlled ovarian stimulation in intracytoplasmic sperm insemination cycles.

AIM: To examine the impact of smoking among females on controlled ovarian stimulation (COS), at intra-cytoplasmatic sperm injection (ICSI) outcome. METHODS: A prospective analysis of outcomes of 876 women (fresh, non donor cycles) of which 559 (63.8%) were non-smokers, 317 (36.2%) were smokers, underwent standard COS/ICSI treatment. RESULTS: Among smokers, the average time of COS, expressed in days, was significantly longer compared with non-smokers (10.5±2.10 vs. 10±1.90 p less than 0, 05). There were no registered significant differences in the number of retrieved oocytes, (10.4±6.8 vs10.3±6.9), mature oocytes (8.6±5.8 vs. 8.4±5.9), in the group of non-smokers versus smokers. However, smoking and age have a significant impact of the number of high-quality embryos, i.e. older smokers had a lower number of high-quality transferred embryos (non-smokers ≥ 35 years : smokers ≥ 35 years; 1.9±1.1 vs. 1.6±1). On multiple logistic regression analysis, factor that had a significantly negative impact of clinical pregnancy was maternal age. CONCLUSION: Smoking among patients entering the COS and ICSI fertilization process had insignificant negative impact on the final outcome of the process resulting in reduced pregnancy rate. The chance for the pregnancy declines with age, but smoking did not significantly influence the outcome.

Recombinant FSH versus HP-HMG for controled ovarian stimulation in intracitoplasmic sperm injection cycles.

UNLABELLED: The aim of this study was to make a conclusion about aplicability of two differnet gonadothropins in COS (rFSH versus HP-hMG). The primary conclusion for the success as a result of COS are the mean number of retrived oocytes, mature oocytes, fertilization rate, mean number of quality embrios, and criopreverzed embrios. The secondary conclusions were clinical pregnancy rate and delivery rates. METHODS: The study was a retrospective case-control study,. A total of 1238 fresh, non donor, IVF cycles with COS were analyzed, but to minimize the bias, only the first cycle for each patient below 40 yaears old, in that period was analyzed. This selection composed the group of respondents that was analyzed which in total amounted to 760 patients.( rFSH = 422, HP-hMG = 338). The patients underwent COS by long luteal protocol using two differnt inducers of COS (rFSH and HP-hMG). RESULTS: The average starting dose of rFSH used was significantely lower (152.7 +/- 41.1IU), whereas with HMG it was (228.8 +/- _68.7 IU, p=000000). The average number of IU gonadothropin used in therapy, statistically highly is significantly lower when r- FSH is used as an inducer. (1639.2 +/- 476.9 IU, rFSH vs 2356.4 +/- 955.1 IU, HP-hMG, p <0.001). We received significantly higher average number of oocytes and mature oocytes in the group of r-FSH (oocytes; rFSH v HP-hMG-11.8 +/- 7.1 v 10.7 +/- 6.5, p = 0.028 ; mature oocytes: rFSH v HP-hMG 9.9 +/- 6.2 v8.7 +/- 5.5 p = 0.009). However, we did not find a significant difference in the use of the COS inductors regarding the clinical pregnancy rate (rFSH v HP-hMG 49.5% vs 48.9% p=0.92) and delivery rate (rFSH vs HP-hMG 42.9% vs 43.4% p=0.96).CONCLUSIONSs: Our study showed that rFSH is more powerful and more applicable in individualized dosing then HP-hMG and brings better results from COS (more oocytes, more matured oocytes).