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It is crucial to monitor the microbial ambience in heavy metal enriched industrial effluents that generally discharge into the environment. Therefore, the present study aimed to understand the load of heavy metals in multidrug-resistant lactose fermenting microorganisms isolating from textile industry effluents. Samples were collected from five different textile industrial canals. In most of the cases, the colony forming units (CFUs) per plate were uncountable at 10-6 dilution but countable at 10-10 dilution. A total of 100 lactose fermenting (LF) isolates were selected using 4 differential media and tested for the determination of minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of heavy metals and antibiotic susceptibility. For nickel (Ni), the MIC was 0.3 mM for almost 98% isolates. The MIC was 0.5 mM for chromium (Cr) in almost 99% isolates. For lead (Pb), 100% isolates had a MIC of 0.4 mM. The most prevalent (36%) resistance pattern was found for sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim (SXT) and only 10% isolates showed resistance to cefotaxime (CTX). The combined effect of heavy metals and antibiotics revealed that in most cases, the antibiotic zone of inhibition was increased. Plasmid profiling showed that among 14 selective isolates, high sized (21kb) plasmid was found in 6 isolates. Key words: Antibiotics, effluents, heavy metals, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), antimicrobial resistance.

Uterine artery pseudoaneurysm (UAP) occurs rarely and can develop after various gynecologic or obstetric procedures. The delayed diagnosis of this disease often results in life-threatening hemorrhage. Here is described a case of UAP after cesarean section. The patient visited gynecology outpatient department of AHD 60 days after cesarean section done outside AHD because of abnormal per vaginal bleeding. After her cesarean section she had undergone laparotomy outside AHD for post partum haemorrhage but those papers were not available. From there she was sent to our radiology department for color Doppler TVS examination and here she was diagnosed as a case of UAP using color Doppler ultrasonography. The most frequent cause of UAP is cesarean section, which accounted for 47.4% of all cases. Previous studies show that the definitive diagnosis was made at angiography (41.2%), computed tomography (29.4%), or color doppler ultrasonography (29.4%). Almost all cases (94.1%) were conservatively treated with transcatheter uterine artery embolization. Consideration of UAP in the differential diagnosis is crucial for proper treatment before rupture and to preserve fertility.Pulse Vol.7 January-December 2014 p.56-60

High dose I-131 therapy is administered to thyroid cancer patients after thyroidectomy. In the treatment process when a radiopharmaceutical is administered to patients, they become a mobile source of radiation. After the treatment, contamination may arise from large amount of activity, which is excreted during the period of hospitalization. To reduce the rate of exposure it is essential to monitor workplace. This study determines the rate of radiation exposure in the room where the patient stays during the period of hospitalization as well as the adjacent rooms and surrounding areas. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjnm.v17i1.22491 Bangladesh J. Nuclear Med. 17(1): 50-54, January 2014

To determine the prevalence of refractive error (RE), presbyopia, spectacle coverage, and barriers to uptake optical services in Bangladesh.Rapid assessment of refractive error (RARE) study following the RARE protocol was conducted in a northern district (i.e., Sirajganj) of Bangladesh (January 2010-December 2012). People aged 15-49 years were selected, and eligible participants had habitual distance and near visual acuity (VA) measured and ocular examinations were performed in those with VA6/18. Those with phakic eyes with VA6/18, but improving to ≥6/18 with pinhole or optical correction, were considered as RE and people aged ≥35 years with binocular unaided near vision ofN8 were considered presbyopic.A total of 3,043 people were examined, of which 143 had RE (4.7%, 95% CI: 3.9-5.5). Among people aged ≥35 years (n = 1402), 869 had presbyopia (62.0, 95% CI: 59.4-64.5). Spectacle coverage for RE and presbyopia were 13.3% (95% CI 7.7-18.9) and 3.2% (95% CI 2.2-4.6), respectively. "Unaware of the problem" was the main reason for not utilizing any optical services among the people with RE (92.8%) and presbyopia (89.5%). Extrapolating the survey findings to the 2011 national census data, the magnitude of RE among people aged 15-49 years in Bangladesh is estimated to be 3,493,980 people (95% CI 2,899,260-4,088,700), of whom 3,029,280 people do not use any spectacles.The burden of RE and presbyopia is substantial in Bangladesh. Improving awareness and availability of refraction services is required to correct REs and presbyopia in Bangladesh.

Zika virus (ZIKV) is an aedes mosquito borne pathogen belonging to the member of flaviviridae subgroup is the causative agent of an emerging disease called Zika fever, known as a benign infection usually presenting as influenza like illness with cutaneous rash. Due to recent epidemic outbreaks it is realized as a major health risk which need enhanced surveillance, but no attempt has been made to design an epitope based peptide vaccine against Zika virus. Viral envelope proteins are derived from host cell membrane proteins with some viral glycoproteins and are used to cover their protective protein capsid, help the viruses to enter host cells and help them to avoid the host immune response. In this study, amino acid sequence of ZIKV envelope glycoprotein was obtained from a protein database and examined with in silico approaches to determine the most immunogenic epitopes for B cell and T cell which could induce humoral as well as cell mediated immune response. Both the linear and conformational epitopes for B cell were predicted by immunoinformatics tools housed in IEDB resources. The peptide sequence DAHAKRQTVVVLGSQEGAV from position 121 and peptide sequence from 117-137 amino acids were predicted as most potential B cell linear and conformational epitopes respectively. Epitopes for CD4+ and CD8+ T cell were also predicted by using tools within IEDB resource and peptide sequence MMLELDPPF from position 250-258 amino acids was predicted as most immunogenic CD8+ T cell epitope with immune response evoking ability prediction score (I pMHC) of 0.09139 and conservancy of 52.17%. The innate immune response for ZIKV envelope glycoprotein was determined by interferon (IFN)-gamma effectuation and mimicking capacity by immunoinformatics and molecular docking study respectively. However, this is an introductory approach to design an epitope based peptide vaccine against Zika virus; we hope this model will be very much helpful in designing and predicting novel vaccine candidate.

The study focused on birth complication and early medical illness as detrimental developmental factors having adverse impact on children and adolescents’ cognitive abilities and academic attainment. To assess cognitive abilities Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - Fourth edition (WISC-IV) was administered on 44 (26 boys, 18 girls) students of primary and secondary level schools of Dhaka city. The performance of last two consecutive school examinations was taken as a measure of academic attainment. The results revealed that higher percentages of students who had serious medical illness during early childhood demonstrated poor academic attainment. It has also revealed significant difference in students’ working memory as well as verbal working memory in terms of academic achievements and serious medical illness during childhood. The results of this study have implications for early screening of children with developmental risk factors for early identification of possible poor cognitive abilities and poor academic attainment. Dhaka Univ. J. Biol. Sci. 22(2): 109-117, 2013 (July)

To identify reasons for the non-uptake of referral for children with disability identified though the Key Informant Method in Bangladesh.Core data was collected and analysed using qualitative methodologies. Fifty-one semi-structured interviews were completed with parent(s) of children who had attended a screening camp at the invitation of a Key Informant, but had not taken up their subsequent referral for health or rehabilitative services. Thematic analysis of the interview data resulted in emerging trends that were critically analysed according to the research objective.Seven thematic reasons for non-uptake of referral were identified: severity of the disability; family and community; direct and associated cost; location of referral; negative camp experience; deliberate non-uptake; and procedural problems. Parents often discussed multiple reasons for non-uptake, interrelating socio-cultural, logistical and experiential factors.Understanding the reasons for the parents of children with disability not taking up referral is important for the design and implementation of appropriate, relevant and contextual medical and rehabilitative services. The role of Key Informants may be developed from case detection, to include facilitation of effective and efficient uptake of services.Programmes to identify children with disability and facilitate subsequent rehabilitation or treatment need to have extensive pre-planned strategies for referral mechanisms and follow up. Although Key Informants were not the focus of investigation, the present study suggests that there is potential for the role of the Key Informants to be extended beyond that of a case detection, to inform and facilitate referral processes and encourage the uptake of services.