1.Variation in Sensitivity Among Some Isolates of Macrophomina phaseolina Isolated from Cotton Roots to Flutolanil Fungicide.
Yehia A G MAHMOUD ; A A ALY ; M R OMAR ; Abdel Wahab A ISMAIL
Mycobiology 2006;34(2):99-103
Toxicity of the fungicide Flutolanil was in vitro tested against 20 isolates of Macrophomina phaseolina and cotton seedlings of ten commercial cotton cultivars. The isolates were recovered from roots of cotton plants obtained from different cotton-growing areas in Egypt. Most of the tested isolates were sensitive to Flutolanil; however, they varied in sensitivity. Twenty-five percent of the isolates were highly sensitive where IC50 ranged from < 1 to 5.1 microg/ml, 20% of the isolates were sensitive where IC50 ranged from 15 to 30 microg/ml, 45% of the isolates were moderately sensitive where IC50 ranged from 46 to 58.5 microg/ml, and 10% of the isolates were not much sensitive (tolerant) where IC50 was > 100 microg/ml. Flutolanil was very safe on both shoots and roots of the tested cultivars (IC50 > 100 microg/ml). Treating cotton seeds with Flutolanil resulted in highly significant (P < 0.01) reductions in pathogenicity of 18 isolates and a significant reduction (P < 0.05) in pathogenicity of isolate M29. M1 was the only isolate, which was insensitive to the application of Flutolanil. In vivo toxicity to Flutolanil was not correlated with its in vitro toxicity. However, a highly significant correlation (r = 0.60, P < 0.01) was observed between pathogenicity of isolates and the in vivo toxicity of the fungicide.
Egypt
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Gossypium
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Inhibitory Concentration 50
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Seedlings
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Virulence
2.Diagnosis, Treatment and Clinical Features of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in Saudi Arabia
Yousry A HAWASH ; Khadiga A ISMAIL ; Maha M ABDEL-WAHAB ; Mahmoud KHALIFA
The Korean Journal of Parasitology 2018;56(3):229-236
Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) has been one of the most common parasitic diseases in Saudi Arabia. This study exhibits the clinical features, diagnosis, cytokine profile and treatment of CL patients in Al-Taif province. Ninety CL suspects at a tertiary care general hospital were enrolled in one-year study. Patients were interviewed, clinically-examined, and subjected to laboratory tests: skin scraping smear microscopy, OligoC-TesT commercial PCR (Coris BioConcept) and kinetoplast DNA (kDNA) PCR for Leishmania diagnosis. Interferon-gamma (RayBio; Human IFN-γ) and nitric oxide (NO) levels in patients' sera were evaluated before treatment with sodium stibogluconate (pentostam) with 20-day intramuscular drug regimen. Positive rates of microscopy, commercial PCR and kDNA PCR were 74.4%, 95.5% and 100%, respectively. Patients came to hospital mostly in winter (45.0%). CL was frequently exhibited in Saudi patients (78.8%), male gender (70.7%), age < 20 years (50.0%), rural-dwellers (75.5%) and patients with travel history (86.6%). Lesion was mostly single ulcer (93.3%), occurred in the face (67.7%). Upon pentostam treatment, 85.1% of ulcers showed rapid healing signs. Levels of IFN-γ and NO were significantly higher in the healing than the non-healing cases (P < 0.001). The kDNA PCR proved more sensitive than microscopy and OligoC-TesT commercial PCR. Our results open perspectives for IFN-γ use as a biomarker predicting treatment response.
Antimony Sodium Gluconate
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Diagnosis
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DNA, Kinetoplast
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Hospitals, General
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Humans
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Interferon-gamma
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Leishmania
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Leishmaniasis, Cutaneous
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Male
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Microscopy
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Nitric Oxide
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Parasitic Diseases
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Polymerase Chain Reaction
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Saudi Arabia
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Skin
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Tertiary Healthcare
;
Ulcer
3.Shift in parasitic infections during the Corona pandemic: a hospital-based retrospective study
Hawash, Y. ; Ismail, K.H. ; Abdel-Wahab, M.
Tropical Biomedicine 2021;38(No.2):94-101
The Corona pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV-
2) calls on the Saudi government to take action to control the infection. The government
closed borders, prohibited travel, limited outdoor movements, and told primary and secondary
care facilities to reduce all regular non-urgent health services. It is not known whether
these measures have impacted the prevalence of parasitic intestinal infections. This study
has therefore been carried out to investigate this issue. Dataset of 217 stool samples
submitted to the King Faisal Medical Complex (KFMC) Microbiology Laboratory in Taif, Saudi
Arabia for parasitological examination during the pandemic (January-June 2020) and 649
samples submitted during the corresponding months of the previous year (January-June
2019) were extracted and analyzed. Overall, 24.1% (209/866) of samples were parasitespositives;
26.6% (173/649) before and 16.5% (36/217) during the pandemic, with 79% reduction.
There was a significant difference in gender-parasitism between the two periods where the
majority of parasitism were for males (p<0.001). Infections were frequent in patients aged 5-
14 years both before (84/649; 12.9%) and during (12/217; 5.5%) the pandemic, with significant
difference observed between the two cohorts (p<0.002). Moreover, the majority of infected
patients were non-Saudi (67.9%; 142/209), with a significant difference in nationality reported,
(p=0.024). Protozoa were identified in 21.8% (189) of all samples investigated, of which,
Blastocystis hominis, Entamoeba coli, Giardia lamblia, Entamoeba histolytica/dispar and
Cryptosporidium species were identified in 6.1% (53), 5.4% (47), 5.0% (44), 2.8% (25), and 2.3%
(20), respectively. Helminths were diagnosed in 2.3% (20/866) of samples. Eggs of hookworm,
Ascaris, Taenia spp, and Hymenolepis nana were detected in 0.9% (8), 0.5% (5), 0.3% (3) and 0.4%
(4), respectively. In parallel with our research hypothesis, a substantial decrease in the
burden of intestinal parasitic infections was recorded with the lock-down measures taken
during the Corona pandemic.