Association of polymorphism of IL-17A, IL-17F, and IL-6 with Toxoplasma gondii infection susceptibility in HIV/AIDS patients in Shiraz, southern Iran.

INTRODUCTION: Toxoplasma gondii infection is considered as one of the most important opportunistic infections and cause of death in HIV patients. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 334 HIV positive patients were included. The molecular test was performed by the restriction fragment length polymorphism-polymerase chain reaction method. Allelic frequency, haplotype analyses, and linkage disequilibrium were calculated. The odds ratio was calculated. The linear regression model was used to analysis of interleukin (IL)-17A, IL-17F, and IL-6 single-nucleotide polymorphism genotypes in HIV patients with and without toxoplasmosis. RESULTS: In total, 95 tested'patients (28.4%) were positive for toxoplasmosis. The risk of toxoplasma infection in the current study did not correlate with IL-17 and IL-6 polymorphism and the risk of contracting toxoplasma was also not significantly correlated in this study. There was no association between the frequency of alleles and the risk of toxoplasma infection in IL-17 haplotype analysis. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study revealed that there were significant differences in the serum levels of IL-6 and IL-17A, but not IL-17F, between the case and control groups in various genetic models. However, these polymorphisms did not show a significant relationship with toxoplasma infection in HIV-positive patients. This study represents the first investigation in Iran to explore the role of IL-6 and IL-17 polymorphisms in toxoplasma infection among HIV-positive patients.

Relationship between interleukin 17 polymorphism in rs 2275913 and rs 763780 and interleukin 6 in rs 1800795 gene region with sensitivity to antiretroviral drugs in patients with human immunodeficiency virus.

Drug complication is still considered as one of the most important causes of death and drug in-compliance around the world. In this cross sectional study, 372 people living with HIV (PLHIV) above 16 years were enrolled. The drug complication was extracted based on the information of the patient's file. The molecular test was performed by the Restriction Fragment length polymorphism-Polymerase Chain Reaction method. Allelic frequency, haplotype analyses, linkage disequilibrium and odds ratio (OR) were calculated. The linear regression model was used to analyze the association of IL'SNPs with drug complication after adjustment for age and sex. Drug complications were observed in 150(40.3%) participants. The most common drug complications were hematological 94(62.7%) ones. The SNPs- rs 2275913 and rs763780- of IL-17were in complete linkage (D́ = 1 and r = 1). A-A haplotype of IL-17 in SNPs- rs 2275913 and rs763780 can increase the risk of drug complication up to 1.628 times more than other haplotypes and G-G and G-A haplotypes have a protective role among them 0.268 and 0.628 times, respectively. Our result for the first time demonstrated the role of IL-17 polymorphism in induced antiretroviral drug complication incidence. Probably A-A haplotype could increase the immune response to anti-retroviral drugs, and G-G and A-G haplotypes can decrease it.

Investigation of job satisfaction amongst voluntary, counseling and testing centers and health centers in Iran.

BACKGROUND: Job satisfaction is the persons' feeling about their job and if personnel have not good feel to his work, can destroy all plans, intentionally or unintentionally. The present research aims to investigate and compare job satisfaction in the employees and therapists of Voluntary, Counseling and Testing Centers versus Health centers in 9 provinces of Iran. METHODS: All employees of Voluntary, Counseling and Testing Centers were included from Fars, Bushehr, Tehran, Isfahan, South Khorasan, Kurdistan, Kermanshah, Kerman, and Yazd provinces as case group and 103 staffs of similar Health centers selected with the same ratio as the staffs of Voluntary, Counseling and Testing Centers as control samples and answered to Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ). RESULTS: 50.5% of Health centers employees and 54% of Voluntary, Counseling and Testing Centers employees had high job satisfaction. The highest satisfaction levels were reported in Fars and Kurdistan provinces and the lowest satisfaction levels were reported in Kermanshah and Bushehr. CONCLUSION: According to the findings, in the Iranian treatment centers, the employees' satisfaction were at the same level regardless of their position and workplace. Also, the eastern and western regions of the country reported higher satisfaction score than the southern and central regions.

Investigating the contributing factors to HIV/AIDS infection from the perspective of HIV-infected patients.

BACKGROUND: People with HIV have always faced stigma and discrimination. Given the numerous papers that have addressed the psychological and social risk factors in spreading HIV, a pressing question is whether individuals' mere careless and behavioural flaws can still account for the spread of HIV. Barriers and opposing politic made a hard position for HIV and sex education in Iran. METHODS: The present study investigated the causes of contracting HIV/AIDS from the perspective of HIV-infected patients. To accomplish this, 150 patients referring to the voluntary counseling and testing Center, Shiraz were convenient selected based on the convenient sampling method and responded to a researcher-made questionnaire From June to August 2019. The data were analyzed through descriptive statistics (mean, SD, frequency tables) and inferential statistics (chi-square). RESULTS: Results revealed that the main cause of HIV infection amongst males was the injection of narcotics, and in the females it was sexual intercourse with an infected individual. Meanwhile, 57% of the females and 66% of the males blamed themselves for contracting and transmitting the disease. The patients stated that if they could return to pre-infection period, they would use one of the following ways to prevent the disease: (a) they would pay attention to hygienic/sanitary principles; (b) they would not get married; and (c) they would prevent drug addiction. Also only 44% of the individuals had successful siblings (those who were neither addicts nor HIV/AIDS-infected individuals), which was an observation that emphasizes on the epidemic of high-risk behaviors in the patients' families. CONCLUSIONS: According to participants' statements collected in our study, weakness in governmental public health education, along with family-related and individual factors, are important causes of HIV spread.

Coping styles in HIV positives and HIV negatives.

BACKGROUND: Choosing the most useful and versatile way to solve one's personal and social problems is one of the most important choices in individual life. The aim of this study was to compare the coping styles of people living with Human immunodeficiency virus positive and negative. METHODS: This is a Cross-sectional study that accomplished in Shiraz Behavioural Disease Counselling Centre in 2019 and 2020. For this purpose, in the first phase, 40 HIV+ and 40 HIV- patients were randomly selected to answer the questionnaire of dealing with the stressful conditions of Andler and Parker. In the second phase, the same questionnaire was filled out along with a reality distortion questionnaire from similar individuals (40 HIV+ and 40 HIV-). RESULTS: 92% of the HIV population in this study was between 15 and 55 years and 8% was upper than 55 years. 90% of them had no university degree. Among all, 47.5% of them were, 48.5% were self-employed and 49% of them were infected sexually. The results showed that in the first stage there was a significant relationship between marital status and the chances of getting the disease in people, and after controlling the demographic factors, coping styles did not show a significant effect on the disease. In the second stage, the factors of age, sex, education, and marital status had significant effects on people living with HIV, but the effect of coping styles on people with HIV was not significant (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Therefore, it can be concluded that demographic factors more than coping styles can affect the chances of high-risk behaviours; so, what is identified and measured as a coping style in people in the process that leads to the manifestation of high-risk behaviours or healthy behaviour does not matter much. It should be noted that the reason for rejecting the hypotheses of this study could be the effect of cultural and social factors of Iranian society.

The diminishing trend of ß-thalassemia in Southern Iran from 1997 to 2011: the impact of preventive strategies.

The marginal zones of the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf have a higher prevalence of thalassemia compared to other regions of Iran. This disease has disabled many people and resulted in increasing health care costs. The aim of this study was to assess the incidence of ß-thalassemia (ß-thal) and to evaluate the outcome of applied preventive strategies over a 14-year period in Fars Province, Southern Iran. This cross-sectional study comprised all new cases of ß-thal recorded during 1997-2011. The data were obtained from the Non-Communicable Diseases Surveillance Department of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran, and are presented as mean ± standard deviation (SD). The Fars Health Network System screened 840 686 males and females applying for marriage certificates. Among the carriers, 50.5% cancelled their marriages, 42.5% married, and 7.0% did not show up at the clinics. The rate of cancelled marriages has reduced since 2000, when marriage candidates were given the option of prenatal diagnosis. From 2000 to 2011, a total of 3539 married couples were referred for prenatal diagnosis. Of these, 806 fetuses were found to carry thalassemia and 800 aborted. It is impressive to note that while 101 cases of thalassemia were recorded in 1997, this figure was reduced to two cases by 2011. This study has established that an integrated primary health care approach, with good infrastructure for implementing successful strategies, can significantly reduce the incidence of ß-thal.