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Tuberculosis (TB) is a potentially fatal contagious disease that can affect almost any part of the body but is mainly an infection of the lungs. It has been present in humans since antiquity. In the past, tuberculosis has been called consumption, because it seemed to consume people from within, with a bloody cough, fever, pallor, and long relentless wasting. In Egypt, TB constitutes the second most important public health problem after schistosomiasis. Although Egypt has relatively low levels of TB according to data from the World Health of Organization, 2005:66% of TB cases occur among the socially and economically productive age groups of 15 to 54 years. According to Ministry of Health and Population (MOHP), Egypt; tuberculosis control is carried out through 111 chest centers and 39 chest disease hospitals. Treatment failure accounts for 3%–5%of the treatment outcome of new smear positive cases and 13%–17% of retreated cases and this is due to non-compliance to treatment, defi cient health education to the patient, poor patient knowledge regarding the disease and diabetes mellitus as co-morbid. The incidence and prevalence of tuberculosis in Egypt has been declining due to increased efforts of the MOHP. Prevalence dropped from 88/100,000 population in 1990 to 24 in 2008, according to data from WHO. SAARC Journal of Tuberculosis, Lung Diseases & HIV/AIDS; 2013; X(1); 43-49 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/saarctb.v10i1.8677

Background: Device-associated hospital-acquired infections (DA-HAIs) are a threat to patient safety, particularly in the intensive care units (ICUs). Methods: A prospective observational study was carried out for 12 months from January 2017 to December 2017 in five ICUs including General intensive care unit (General ICU), Cardiology care unit (CCU), Neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), Pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), and Neurosurgery intensive care unit (Neurosurgery ICU) of Mansoura New General Hospital (MNGH). Data were collected from patient's file and laboratory results according to definitions of CDC. DA-HAIs were calculated by dividing the total number of device associated infections (DAIs) by the total number of device days and multiplying the result by 1,000. Results: In the current study 1,666 patients hospitalized for 11.280 days in the different ICUs. These patients acquired 91 DA-HAIs. The most frequent DA-HAIs (per 1000 device-days) were Ventilator-associated Pneumonia (VAP) (10.9), central line-associated blood stream infection, (CLA-BSI) (5.9), and catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CA-UTI) (5.6). The urinary catheter utilization ratio was 0.54, central line utilization ratio was 0.33, and ventilator utilization ratis was 0.28. The most frequently isolated organisms were Klebsiella spp. (34%) and E.coli (20.9%). The most frequent bacteria causing VAP, CLA-BSI, and CA-UTI were Klebsiella spp. (60%), Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus spp (27.3% for each)., and E.coli (41.2%) respectively.. Conclusion: Surveillance of DA-HAIs is the first step to improve infection control activity and to implement preventive bundles measures in the intensive care unit.

Herpes simplex virus (HSV)-1 keratitis (HSK) is a sight-threatening ocular infection with worldwide occurrence. A prompt laboratory diagnosis is often very useful. The purpose of this study was to evaluate molecular methods as rapid diagnostic tools compared with cell culture of HSK. Corneal scrapings from patients with clinically suspected HSK were tested by direct immunofluorescence assay (IFA) for HSV-1 antigen and by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for HSV-1 DNA, and an attempt for viral isolation was performed on Vero cell line culture. Positive samples by cell culture were 20.8%, whereas PCR was positive in 29.2%, and IFA was positive in 33.3%. IFA had better sensitivity (80%) and negative predictive value (81.8%) than PCR (70% and 76.9%, respectively); however, PCR had better specificity (71.4%) and positive predictive value (63.6%). This indicates that a combination of cell culture, IFA and PCR constitutes the best set of tools for diagnosis of clinically suspected cases of HSK. Documented infection can be further assessed by cell-culture technique or PCR depending laboratory availability.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis D virus (HDV) sequences among HBV carriers from Egypt have not been evaluated sufficiently. The genotypes of HBV isolated from 105 serum samples from Egyptian carriers were determined. Four complete genomes and 11 entire preS1/S2/S genes were sequenced and evaluated. All serum samples were classified into HBV genotype D using serologic and genetic methods. The length of four complete nucleotide sequences was 3,182 bp. In all 15 samples, the common 33 nucleotides (11 amino acids) deletions in the preS1 region specific for HBV genotype D were observed. In the phylogenetic analysis based on the complete nucleotide sequences, all samples were clustered with the HBV isolates reported from previously Western and Mediterranean countries with nucleotide homology ranging from 96.0–98.0%. Of 75 HBsAg positive samples, anti-HDV was found in 15 (20%), and HDV RNA was detected in 9 of 15 (60%). The proportion of the patients with liver disease was higher in HBV carriers of anti-HDV positive with HDV RNA than in HBV carriers of anti-HDV positive without HDV RNA (P