1.PREVALENCE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF ESCHERICHIA COLI ISOLATES HARBOURING SHIGA TOXIN GENES (STX) FROM ACUTE DIARRHOEAL PATIENTS IN DHAKA, BANGLADESH
JASMIN AKTER ; SURESH CHANDRA DAS ; THANDAVARAYAN RAMAMURTHY ; HASAN ASHRAF ; DEBASISH SAHA ; ABU SYED GOLAM FARUQUE ; GOPINATH BALAKRISH NAIR ; MOHAMMED ABDUS SALAM
Tropical Medicine and Health 2005;33(3):119-126
Shiga toxin genes (stx) harbouring Escherichia coli (STEC) strains were isolated and identified from diarrhoeal patients visiting the Dhaka Hospital of ICDDR,B: Centre for Health and Population Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Of the 189 E. coli strains isolated from 775 diarrhoeal stool specimens, 19 harboured stx1, and one isolate was revealed to have amplicons for both stx1 and stx2 by a PCR assay. Sequence analysis of the 349-bp stx1 from representative isolates revealed 100% homology with the sequence of stx1 available in the GenBank. Among the stx1 positive isolates, two harboured the eae but none were positive for hlyA, katP, etpD or saa genes. Fifteen of the 20 stx positive strains could be categorized into 13 non-O157 serogroups while 4 were untypable and one was a rough strain. Most of the STEC strains were resistant to ampicillin, cephalothin, co-trimoxazole, tetracycline, and nalidixic acid. In the Vero cell assay, all the strains were negative for expression of Shiga toxin (Stx). Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) PCR analysis demonstrated genetic diversity. This is one of the first reports to show the presence of STEC in diarrhoeal patients in Bangladesh.
2.Burden of Early Life Obesity and Its Relationship with Protein Intake in Infancy: The Middle East Expert Consensus
Frank JOCHUM ; Mohamed ABDELLATIF ; Ashraf ADEL ; Ahmed ALHAMMADI ; Abdulrahman ALNEMRI ; Eman ALOHALI ; Khaled ALSARRAF ; Khoula AL SAID ; Mahmoud ELZALABANY ; Hasan M. A. ISA ; Sridhar KALYANASUNDARAM ; Naguib Abdel REHEIM ; Omar SAADAH
Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition 2022;25(2):93-108
Adequate nutrition in early life is proposed to shape a child’s future health by launching the growth trajectory in the proper direction, which helps to avoid negative metabolic programming effects. Protein intake during infancy and early childhood is of great importance, as it plays a key role in infant metabolic programming and the future risk of obesity. Breastfeeding provides the best nutrition in early life, with many benefits tailored for the baby, including the appropriate quantity and quality of proteins. Considering the high prevalence of childhood, and subsequent adult, obesity in the region, a virtual Middle East expert consensus meeting was held to discuss an effective approach for managing childhood obesity. Leading pediatric experts from Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates participated in the meeting. The experts discussed, debated, and agreed on certain directions, including the importance of educating parents, endorsing breastfeeding, and ensuring optimum quantity and quality intake of proteins in early life.This expert consensus may serve as the starting point for healthcare professionals in the region who are interested in shaping a healthy future for the generations to come.
3.Molecular prevalence of Anaplasma marginale in ruminants and Rhipicephalus ticks in northern Pakistan
Ali, S. ; Hasan, M. ; Ahmad, A.S. ; Ashraf, K. ; Khan, J.A. ; Rashid, M.I.
Tropical Biomedicine 2023;40(No.1):7-13
Anaplasma marginale is the most prevalent tick-borne haemoparasite of cattle and causes huge
economic losses to the dairy industry worldwide. This study aimed to determine the occurrence of A.
marginale infection in blood and tick samples collected from livestock animals in the districts located
in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), Pakistan. A total of 184 blood and 370 tick samples were included in this
study. It has never been reported that sheep, goats, and cattle in Tank, Ghulam Khan, Birmil and Miran
Shah areas were infected with A. marginale. All samples of blood and ticks were collected through
random sampling from March 2021 to January 2022 from cattle, sheep and goats and screened through
PCR for anaplasmosis by using primer pairs of Anaplasma spp. Three hundred and seventy ticks were
collected from infested hosts (120/184, 64.21%). Among the four morphologically identified tick species,
the highest occurrence was recorded for Rhipicephalus sanguineus (n=138, 37.29%), followed by
Rhipicephalus microplus (n=131, 35.4%), Rhipicephalus annulatus (n=40, 10.81%), Hyalomma anatolicum
(n=31, 8.37%), and Hyalomma marginatum (n=30, 8.1%). The occurrence of female tick was highest
(n=160, 43.24%), followed by nymphs (n=140, 37.38%) and males ticks (n=70, 18.9%). Among these ticks,
A. marginale was detected in female ticks of R. microplus, and R. sanguineus. Molecular identification
of A. marginale was confirmed in 120 out of 184 blood samples and 6 out of 74 tick samples. Overall,
occurrence of A. marginale in blood and tick samples was found to be 65.21% and 8.1% respectively.
Species-wise occurrence in blood samples of goats were 71.11% followed by sheep 68.31% and cattle
50%. Specie-wise occurrence of A. marginale in tick samples of cattle were 12.5% followed by goats
6.89%. The obtained sequence showed similarity with A. marginale reported from Kenya and USA. We
report the first PCR based detection of A. marginale infection in blood samples and in R. sanguineus
ticks of goats simultaneously.