RESUMO
The initial colonization of the intestine represents one of the most profound immunological exposures faced by the newborn. During the first three years of life, the intestinal microbial composition undergoes significant changes. At birth, the digestive tract is rapidly colonized by microorganisms of maternal and environmental origins. Microbiota's composition is influenced by various factors, including the mode of delivery, gestational age, type of feeding, and medication use. Through the current study, we specifically focused on elucidating the dynamics of gut microbiota colonization within the first three weeks of life of infants, shedding light on this critical phase of development. A prospective cohort study involving 29 preterm infants was conducted from January to September 2021 at the National Reference Center for Neonatology and Nutrition, in collaboration with the research laboratory of Children's Hospital at the University Hospital Center Ibn Sina in Rabat. Stool samples were collected from each infant's diapers into a sterile tube and send for laboratory analysis. A total of 203 stool samples were collected. For each newborn, one stool sample was obtained within the first 48 h after birth, followed by two samples per week over a period of three weeks. The microbial compositions of these samples were analyzed using real-time polymerase chain reaction.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND: The epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), presents a significant and urgent threat to global health. This alarming viral infection, declared as pandemic by the WHO in February 2020, has resulted millions of infected patients and thousands of deaths around the world. In Morocco, despite the efforts made by the authorities, the SARS-CoV-2 continues to spread and constitutes a burden of morbidity and mortality. The objective of this study is to describe clinical characteristics of COVID-19 Moroccan patients and to establish the relationship between specific clinical symptoms, namely ageusia and/or anosmia, with these characteristics. METHODS: We performed a descriptive, non-interventional cross-sectional study analyzing data from 108 patients admitted to the VINCI clinic, Casablanca (Morocco). The database includes 39 parameters including epidemiological characteristics, anthropometric measurements and biological analyzes. RESULTS: The average of age of the patients was 43.80 ± 15.75 years with a sex ratio of 1:1. The mean body mass index of the patients was 25.54 ± 4.63 Kg/m2. The majority of patients had, at least, one comorbidity and among 75% symptomatic patients, about 50% had, at least, three symptoms namely, fever (40.7%), cough (39.8%), myalgia (28.7%), and anosmia and/or ageusia (20.4%). From biological analyzes, we noticed lymphopenia and an elevated protein C reactive and lactate dehydrogenases levels in 24.1, 36.1, and 35.2% of patients, respectively. A disturbance in liver function markers was observed in 15.7% of cases. For the other hemostasis parameters, high levels of prothrombin and platelets were reported in 14.6 and 14.8% of patients, respectively. Comparisons related to the presence of anosmia and/or ageusia did not show any difference for demographic and anthropometric characteristics, while a possibility of a significant difference was revealed for certain biological parameters, particularly the levels of lymphocytes, D-dimer and troponin. CONCLUSION: This study provides significant findings that will be used not only to supplement previous studies carried out in Morocco in order to resume the epidemiological situation in comparison with other countries, but also to improve the quality of the diagnosis of COVID-19 patients by identifying all the symptoms of the disease and better understanding its clinical outcomes.
