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Infectious diseases trigger fear and anxiety among patients leading to disturbance in psychological health of patients. Psychological symptoms were found during SARS-COV-1 epidemic which raise the curiosity about their presence with SARS-COV-2 infection. The current study aimed to estimate the prevalence and severity of psychiatric disorders (depression, anxiety, and stress) among COVID-19 patients and their associated significant predictors. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 382 patients infected with COVID-19 in South Sinai governorate, Egypt, during the period June 2021 through January 2022. Patients with positive PCR test for COVID-19 were included if no more than 6 months have passed after being isolated in the hospital or at home. The patients were being contacted after being cured from COVID-19. The Arabic version of the Depression Anxiety Stress was used to assess the psychological status of patients. Multivariate linear regression analysis was done to detect the predictors of psychiatric symptoms among patients. A total of 382 participants with mean age of 41.5 ± 15.0 years old, of whom 72.5% were males were included in the study. 91.6% of participants had all the three studied psychological disorders; depression, anxiety and stress with most of participants had either severe or extremely severe conditions (13.9 and 75.7 for anxiety, 22.8 and 46.3% for depression, 38.5 and % 19.6 for stress, respectively). Healthcare workers had higher prevalence rates of depression, anxiety and stress. In bivariate analysis, educational level, HCWs and visiting healthcare facility were significantly affecting DASS scores. In linear regression analysis, hospital admission was the main predictor of the three psychological disorders. In Conclusion, majority of patients affected with COVID-19 suffered from symptoms of anxiety, depression and stress within six months after being infected. Hospital admission was found to be the main predictor of the presence of psychiatric disorders with prolonged recovery time from COVID-19 infection. More attention should be paid to COVID-19 patient's mental health as psychological care and presence of psychiatric in the isolation hospitals should be considered., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Objectives: Natural products are often efficacious and safe alternatives to synthetic drugs. This study explored secondary leaves and bark metabolites profiles in extracts of a new Egyptian hybrid, Annona cherimola × Annona squamosa, known as Abdel Razek. This hybrid exhibited 100% similarity with A. cherimola as evidenced by random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) analyses., Methods: Primary constituents in methanol extracts of different plant organs were identified. Extracts richest in alkaloids and polyphenolics were assessed for in vitro antioxidant activity and the most potent were further studied in vivo for treating gastric ulcer in rats. The latter activity was assessed histopathologically., Results: Structural analysis with HPLC/ESI-MS n , and UPLC/HESI-MS/MS identified 63 metabolites, including seven amino acids, 20 alkaloids, 16 flavonoids, eight phenolics and other compounds. Severe stomach alteration was observed after ethanol induction in rats. Ulcer score, oxidative stress biomarkers, cell organelles biomarker enzymes, and gastrointestinal histological features improved to variable degrees after treatment with Annona Abdel Razek hybrid leaves and bark methanol extracts., Conclusion: Extracts of Annona Abdel Razek had showed in vitro antioxidant effect and may be promising for the treatment of gastric ulcers., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Background: To date, the cytokine profile in children and adolescent with novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has not been reported., Objectives: We investigated serum levels of a panel of key cytokines in children and adolescent with COVID-19 pneumonia with a primary focus on "cytokine storm" cytokines such as interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, IL-17, IL-2, IL-4, IL-10, interferon (IFN-γ), tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and two chemokines interferon-inducible protein-10 (IP-10) and IL-8. We also studied whether these cytokines could be potential markers for illness severity in COVID-19 pneumonia., Methods: Ninety-two symptomatic patients aged less than 18 years with confirmed COVID-19 pneumonia and 100 well-matched healthy controls were included in this multi-center study. For all patients, the presence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in respiratory fluid specimens was detected by real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. We measured serum concentrations of studied cytokines by using flow cytometry., Results: Patients with COVID-19 had significantly higher median IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-17, TNF-α, and IP-10 serum levels than did control children (all p < 0.01). Patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia had significantly higher median IL-1β, IL-6, and IP-10 serum levels as compared with those with moderate COVID-19 pneumonia; all p < 0.01. ROC analysis revealed that three of the studied markers (IL-6, IL-1β, and IP-10) could predict severe COVID-19 pneumonia cases with the largest AUC for IL-6 of 0.893 (95% confidence interval: 0.84-0.98; p < 0.01)., Conclusion: Our study shows that pediatric patients with COVID-19 pneumonia have markedly elevated serum IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-17, TNF-α, and IP-10 levels at the initial phase of the illness indicating a cytokine storm following SARS-CoV-2 infection. Moreover, serum IL-6, IL-1β, and IP-10 concentrations were independent predictors for severe COVID-19 pneumonia., (© 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Introduction: Dorsal inlay graft urethroplasty using inner-face preputial graft was described as an adjunct method to the classic tubularized incised plate (TIP) urethroplasty, aiming at reducing the risk of neourethral stenosis., Objectives: To evaluate the impact of dorsal inlay grafting of preservable narrow plates, in relation to native plate width., Methods: Consecutive children with penile hypospadias with narrow plate (width < 8 mm) were evaluated prospectively between Jan 2014 and Jun 2018. Included cases were stratified into two groups: group A (plate width: 4 to <8 mm) and group B (plate width: < 4 mm). All cases were approached by TIP urethroplasty, with dorsal inlay grafting (inner-face prepuce). Cases with significant chordee (non-preservable plates), circumcised cases, and redo cases were excluded., Results: A total of 104 hypospadias cases with narrow plates were included in this study. Among group A (n = 81), the need for postrepair urethral dilations was reported in two cases (2.5%) vs seven cases (30%) in group B (n = 23) (P-value < 0.001). Another two cases (2.5%) in group A developed urethrocutaneous fistulae vs three cases (13%) in group B (P-value = 0.0624). Surgical repair of the reported five cases with fistulae, revealed an ample neourethral wall; disclosing well-taken grafts in both groups., Discussion: Few published studies evaluated grafting the incised plate in penile hypospadias. To the authors knowledge, this is the first study that selectively evaluated the impact of grafting narrow plates in relation to its native pre-incision width., Conclusions: According to the presented authors' experience, 4 mm width is the border line of clinical relevance that defines poor urethral plate. Grafting that plate failed to compensate for its native poor characteristics; however, it offered a valuable neourethral wall that proved indispensable when redo surgery deemed necessary, without adding grafting-related problems. Nevertheless, further extended comparative studies came across as a necessity to verify the long-term outcomes of grafting the incised poor plates., (Copyright © 2019 Journal of Pediatric Urology Company. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The current study aimed at exploring the knowledge and beliefs of men aged forty years and over towards prostate cancer screening and early detection in three Arab countries. The field work was conducted in three countries; Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, during the period February through December 2011. Our target population were men aged 40 years and over. It was a population-based cross sectional study comprising 400 subjects at each site. In addition to socio-demographic data, history of the present and past medical illness, practice history of prostatic cancer examination, family history of cancer prostate; participants were inquired about their knowledge and attitude towards prostate cancer and screening behavior using two different likert scales. The percentage of participants who practiced regular prostate check up ranged from 8-30%. They had poor knowledge and fair attitude towards prostate cancer screening behavior, where the mean total knowledge score was 10.25±2.5, 10.76±3.39 and 11.24±3.39 whereas the mean total attitude score was 18.3±4.08, 20.68±6.4 and 17.96±5.3 for Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan respectively. The respondents identified the physicians as the main sources of this information (62.4%), though they were not the main motives for regular checkup. Knowledge was the only significant predictor for participants' attitude in the multiple regression models. Participants' attitudes depends mainly on level of knowledge and quantity of information provided to the patients and their families. Such attitudes should rely on a solid background of proper information and motivation from physicians to enhance and empower behaviors towards prostate cancer screening practices.

Objective: To investigate the relationship between maternal work and pregnancy outcome., Methods: Over a 4-month period from October 2004 through February 2005, 2,419 women were interviewed shortly after delivery in the three main public and Health Insurance hospitals in Alexandria, Egypt. Of these, 730 (30.2%) were working and 1,689 (69.8%) were not working prior to delivery. A detailed description of working status was analyzed, along with a risk profile which was compared between the two groups., Results: There was no significant association between different work characteristics and perinatal outcomes except for that between working posture, stress and delivery of small-for-gestational-age (SGA) babies. There was an excess rate of SGA and perinatal death among the non-working group, while preterm delivery was significantly increased among those who worked throughout the whole pregnancy. After adjusting for confounders, the risk of preterm delivery was no longer significant (OR = 1.2, 95% CI = 0.96-1.7). On the other hand, working status had a beneficial effect on SGA and perinatal death (OR = 0.41, 95% CI = 0.26-0.64 and OR = 0.26, 95% CI = 0.14-0.48, respectively)., Conclusion: These results cast doubt on the risk of adverse pregnancy outcome for women who work during pregnancy. Work per se does not constitute a health risk factor and may even have a positive social impact on pregnancy. Further research on this topic in our region is recommended.

We studied the magnitude and determinants of device-related nosocomial infections in intensive care units (ICU) and identified the predominant microorganisms involved. Sputum, urine, blood cultures and chest X-ray were taken from each patient on admission and on appearance of any sign/symptom of infection. Out of 400 patients admitted to 3 units during the study, 45 (11.3%) developed nosocomial infections. The most important determinants of infection were previous admission to an ICU, whether in the same or another hospital, and duration of stay. Overall, 38 patients developed 43 device-related nosocomial infections (1.13 episodes per patient). The main infectied association with invasive procedures were ventilator-associated pneumonia followed by catheter-related urinary tract infection and bloodstream infections.

As nursing has been previously identified as a stressful occupation, sources of job stress and levels of job satisfaction were extensively investigated. However, studies addressing issues of nurses' mental health are scarce. This work aims to assess psychological well-being of nurses in different job settings in Alexandria and to identify sociodemographic, psychosocial and workplace predictors. A total sample of 412 nurses represented nurses working in five different health organizations in Alexandria. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect sociodemographic, occupational and health data, and the Standardized Arabic Version of General Health questionnaire (GHQ-30 items), Job Descriptive Index (JDI), and Social Support Scale (SSS) were also used. Results revealed that 21.67% of nurses recorded moderate to severe psychological symptoms on GHQ. Fewer years of experience, negative family and friend support, and negative total work satisfaction were found to be significant predictors of psychological ill health among nurses in a descending rank order. Implications for nursing intervention will be discussed.

Background: Hepatitis B (HB) vaccine represents one of the major achievements in the 20th century. The most important epidemiologic factor affecting the chronic carrier rate is age of infection. The earlier in life an infection occurs, the higher the probability that this infection will result in chronic carriage., Methods: A seroepidemiologic study was conducted to examine the impact of HB vaccination on the carrier state among a vaccinated group of children (1000) compared to a non-vaccinated group (500) aged 6 years in Alexandria, Egypt., Results: The rate of HbsAg positivity among the vaccinated group was found to be 0.8% compared to 2.2% among the non-vaccinated group. The study showed that the efficacy of HB vaccine in preventing the carriage of HbsAg, 5 years after full course vaccination, was estimated to be around 67%. However, long-term monitoring should continue to confirm the efficacy of the vaccine in preventing chronic carrier state. On the other hand, studying the exposure to some risk factors associated with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection revealed more or less a similar pattern of exposure among both vaccinated and unvaccinated children., Conclusion: It can be concluded that the significantly lower rate of HbsAg positivity among the vaccinated compared to the rate among the non-vaccinated is attributed to the preventive effect of the vaccine.

Fascioliasis, caused by Fasciola species, is a disease of herbivorous animals. It has a worldwide distribution in a large variety of grass-grazing animals as sheep, goats, cattle, buffaloes, horses and rabbits. In Egypt, donkeys and camels as well, are hosts for F. gigantica. Fascioliasis may occasionally affect man. Human infection causes serious hepatic pathological sequences that add to the already known threats to the liver of the Egyptian population. Two clinical stages are recognized in human fascioliasis. An acute stage coincides with the larval migration and worm maturation in the hepatic tissue, and a chronic stage coincides with the persistence of Fasciola worms in the bile ducts. Human infection with fascioliasis was very sporadic until the last three decades where clinical cases and outbreaks were reported. The estimated the number of people currently having fascioliasis to be 360,000 in Bolivia, 20,000 in Ecuador, 830,000 in Egypt, 10,000 in Islamic Republic of Iran, 742,000 in Peru, and 37,000 in Yemen. The total estimated number of people infected is 2.4 million in 61 countries and that the number at risk is more than 180 million throughout the world. Human fascioliasis has to be differentially diagnosed from some diseases as acute hepatitis, infection with other liver flukes as schistosomiasis, visceral toxocariasis, biliary tract diseases and hepatic amoebiasis. The parasitological diagnosis is based on identification of eggs in stool, duodenal contents or bile, also by the recovery of adult worm during surgical exploration, after treatment or at autopsy. However, the eggs may be present in very small number at irregular intervals, hence difficult to be found. Besides, the eggs may be transiently present in stool after ingestion of raw or undercooked liver from infected animals. The direct methods of diagnosing the egg are usually unsatisfactory. The symptoms may be present for several weeks before eggs are recovered in stool. Thus, the serologic tests are the alternative method of confirming early and extrabiliary human fascioliasis. However, cross-reactions with other helminthic antigen may confuse the interpretation of the results.

The tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha or Cachectin) is a protein produced mainly by macrophages, with a wide range of biological activities and in inflammatory process. On the other hand, scabies is a skin disease caused by Sarcoptes scabiei which is typified by severe itching (particularly at night), red papules and often secondary infection. The female mite tunnels in the skin to lay her eggs and the newly hatched mites pass easily from person to person by contact. Commonly the infested areas are the groin, penis, nipples and the skin between the fingers. In this paper, the serum levels of TNF-alpha versus IgG., IgM., and IgE. were estimated in parasitologically proven scabietic male children (8-13 years) with no secondary infection or other parasitic infection. The results showed high significant elevation of serum TNF-alpha in 94.1% (P = 7.763E-04) and IgE in 100% (P = 1.530E-07) in the scabietic patients than in the control group, and non significant increase in IgG in 47% (P = 0.0605) and in IgM in 5.9% (P = 0.9404). It was concluded that TNF-alpha plays a role in the pathogenesis of human scabies. Extensive study is ongoing to clarify the outcome of TNF-alpha in human scabies.

Exogenous and indigenous cases of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis are reported in several Egyptian Governorates particularly those in the Nile Delta, Phlebotomus paptasi (Scopoli) is the only proven insect vector. This paper was intended to study the seasonal abundance, nocturnal activity and breeding sites as well as other relevant behaviour aiming to throw some light on this insect vector. The results showed that: (a) the seasonal activity started in April and ended in November or beginning of December. (b) female outnumbered male indoors (7.4:1) and V.V. outdoors (0.14:1). (c) blood fed females were 97.7% indoors and 29.4% outdoors. (d) the nocturnal activity ranged between 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. indoors and 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. outdoors. (e) the immature stages of Phlebotomus were successfully recovered from rodent burrows and poultry sheds.

Ecto and endoparasites are still one of the public health problems in Egypt. This is particularly true among school students who are exposed to the parasitic infections or infestations by autoinfection or by contagious. In this paper, two primary schools were selected in Qualyob City, Qualyobia Governorate (in the Nile Delta). Examination of 486 school children (6-12 years old) revealed pediculosis (16.04), schistosomiasis (8.8%), amoebiasis (7.81%), giardiasis (9.05%), taeniasis saginata (0.41%), ascariasis (9.05%), enterobiasis (0.9%) and hymenolepiasis nana (9.87%). It was found that ectoparasites (lice) represented 17.8% of the total parasites detected in the children. Endoparasites transmitted by autoinfection represented 43.02%, those transmitted by skin penetration represented 9.84%, those transmitted by meat consumption represented 0.45% and by other modes of infection represented 28.8%. It was concluded that school children are the group of individuals at risk. They spend long time outside their homes in a crowd area. Besides, they convey the parasites, particularly those transmitted by contagious and autoinfection to their family members.

Leishmania major, the cause of human zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis, is a widely distributed parasite in the Old World. Here, we report the isoenzyme characterization of two human isolates obtained from Egyptians who never travelled abroad. The two isolates were L. major equivalent to zymodene Lond I.

In a Survey for Zoonotic helminthic infection in rodents Schistosoma mansoni eggs were detected in the large intestine and liver of Arvicanthis niloticus.