119 isolates of Shigella with multi-drug resistant (100 Shigella flexneri) to chloramphenicol (Cm), ampicillin (Ap), tetracyclin (Te), trimethoprim (Tr), sulfamethoxazole (Su) from Northern, Central and Southern regions of Viet Nam during a period of 1995-1997 were investigated for the ability to transfer gene trains by method of conjugation. 59.2% strains were transferable in vitro to E.coli K12 with frequence from 10-7 to 10-5 (65.8% strains from Northern, 54.8% strains from Central and 57.5% strains from Southern regions). Almost all the antibiotic resistance genes were transfered with 10 different patterns of resistance; Ap, Tr, Su being the most frequent patters: 45.7% strains fro Northern, 30.8% strains from Southern and 25.6% strains from Central regions.
Drug Resistance ; shigella

129 isolates of S.typhi multi-drug resistant to Cm, Ap, Te, Tr, Su from Northern, Southern and Central regions of Vietnam during 1995-1997 were examined to detect the ability to transfer gene encoding the resistance to antibiotics and to study molecular characters of it’s R-plasmids. Results indicated the presence of self-transferable plasmid in 90% S.typhi strains from Southern, and 100% strains from Northern and Central regions. These strains carried from 1 to 2 plasmids of molecular weighed 110 MD and 80 MD. Gene encoding the resistance to Cm, Ap, Te, Tr, and Su were found to be located on a large plasmid of 100 MD. All S.typhi strains from 3 regions showed to have large plasmids with identical molecular structure, this indicated the same origin of these S.typhi strains.
Drug resistance ; Salmonella typhi

126 multiply resistant S.typhi isolates were screened among 363 isolates collected from Northern, Central and Southern regions of Vietnam during the period 1995-1997. Transfer experiments of the resistance to E.coli K12-J53 from these S.typhi isolates were performed to determine their transferable capacity of resistance factors and its frequency. The results indicated that 74.78% of multiply resistant S.typhi isolates (AM, CL, TE, TR, SU) have R-factors, most of them contained all resistance genes characterizing the resistance of wild strains. The frequency of transfer of the resistance varied from 10-5 to 10-8.
Drug resistance ; Salmonella typhi

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is resistant many antibiotics currently, including new generation, broad spectrum antibiotics that were very effective with other bacteria. Thus, it's difficult to treat P. aeruginosa infection with these antibiotics. Author collected P. aeruginosa strains from some hospitals in Hanoi, tested with more antibiotics in order to determine antibiotic resistant rate and types, to orient some mechanisms of antibiotic resistance of P. aeruginosa. Materials is 97 strains of P. aeruginosa isolated from blood and pus of patients treated at Bach Mai Hospital and National Institute of Burn from August 2002 to November 2003. Method: disk diffusion antibiotic sensitivity testing (Kirby - Bauer test). Results: Isolated P. aeruginosa strains are multiple antibiotic resistant (8 of 16 antibiotics), especially hospital infection strains are resistant 100% of tested antibiotics. It showed the potential roles of some enzymes such as penicillinase, cephalosporinase, AAC(6), ANT(2")-1, and ANT(2") enzymes that inhibit effects of antibiotics in bacterium cell
Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Pseudomonas aeruginosa ; Drug Resistance, Microbial

In the period from Aug 2002 to Aug 2003, at the National Institute of Burn strains of S. aureus and 45 strains of P.aeruginosa were isolated from the blood of severious septicemia patients.In disk diffusion test,100% of S.aureus strains were resistant to penicillin, erythromycine, kanamycine, tobramycine, gentamycine, oxacilline, 36% in particular, resistant to vancomycine and 45% to teicoplanine. 100%,of P.aeruginosa were resistant to ticarcilline, cefoperazol, gentamycine, tobramycine and 50% were resistant to ciprofloxacine.The most common effective combinations were rifampicine+acide fusidic, or rifampicine+ vancomycine for S. aureus, and imipenem + fosfomycine or imipenem+netilmycine, or imipenem +piperacillin/tazobactam for P.aeruginosa
Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Therapeutics ; Burns ; Infection

Background: Salmonella typhi (S.typhi) is the major cause of human typhoid fever outbreaks. In fact, there were various typhoid fever outbreaks that occurred in China, and India that was caused by S.typhi strain without Vi antigen. Objective: To determine whether the S.typhi strains with mutation of gene encoding Vi antigen exists in Vietnam and the rate of mutation (if they exists). Subject and methods: 450 S.typhi isolates were collected in the Northern, Central and Southern Region of Vietnam during 1995 and 2005. The isolates were analyzed by the PCR method in order to detect mutants by using 2 primer pairs of tviB and DE. Results and Conclusion: There was no clear evidence on the relationship between the widely used Typhi Vi vaccine in Vietnam and the existence and spread of the mutation of gene encoding Vi antigen of S.typhi. 30 out of 450 isolates mutated losing the gene encoding of Vi antigen, making it 6.67%. These isolates were spread out between 1995 and 2005 throughout the Northern, Central and Southern Regions of Vietnam, with a peak in 1999. A noteworthy point was the rate of mutation of S.typhi losing the gene encoding of Vi antigen in Vietnam during the period of study. However, the mutation rate of S.typhi in Vietnam was still higher than the ratio of similar mutations being published in the other countries worldwide and higher than the recommended level of the World Health Organization.
gene mutation ; Salmonella typhi

Background: Fungal keratitis is a serious ocular infection that can cause corneal scarring and blindness. Currently, diagnosis of fungal pathogens remains a difficult problem. Objectives: To investigate the application of semi-nested PCR targeted ITS genes for detection of fungal agents causing keratitis. Material and method: Ten identified fungal strains, 4 bacterial strains, 20 scraping samples from patients with suspected fungal keratitis and 2 scraping samples from patients with suspected bacterial keratitis were tested using semi-nested PCR. Results: Semi-nested PCR showed positive results for the samples of identified fungal strains and for the 20 scraping samples from patients with suspected fungal keratitis. Neither samples of bacterial strains nor scraping samples from suspected bacterial keratitis patients gave positive PCR results. Conclusion: Semi-nested PCR is a robust tool for specific and rapid detection of fungal agents causing keratitis.
Fungal keratitis ; semi-nested PCR

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the relationship between dyslipidemia and obesity status among Viet-namese adolescents. METHODS: In this case-control study, 282 adolescents (6–11 years), including 88 obese cases and 194 normal-weight controls, were recruited from a population-based cross-sectional study from two provinces in Vietnam. The anthropometric, blood lipid, and other laboratory test results of the study subjects were analyzed. RESULTS: Obese children tended to have more visceral fat (Pearson's r = 0.795, p < 0.0001) than subcutaneous fat (Pearson's r = 0.754, p < 0.0001), and this difference was associated with an increase in blood triglyceride level (Pearson's r = 0.232, p < 0.05) and a strikingly high rate of hypertriglyceridemia (38.6%). We also found that birth weight and parental body mass index were related to the status of obesity among the study subjects. However, only birth weight was significantly higher in the obese group than in the normal weight group. These findings indicate the effect of prenatal nutrition on childhood obesity. Furthermore, high-birth weight children had a surprisingly high rate of obesity. CONCLUSION: Together, our data suggest that obesity increased the risk for hypertriglyceridemia, which was, at least partially, due to prenatal nutrition.
Adolescent ; Birth Weight ; Body Mass Index ; Case-Control Studies* ; Child ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Dyslipidemias ; Humans ; Hypertriglyceridemia* ; Intra-Abdominal Fat ; Obesity ; Parents ; Pediatric Obesity* ; Subcutaneous Fat ; Triglycerides ; Vietnam*

Papiliotrema huenov was previously reported to be highly tolerant of a range of extremely toxic heavy metals. This study aimed to identify the potential of P. huenov to remove manganese and copper from aqueous solution. Physical conditions which affect removal of Mn(II) and Cu(II) were determined. Optimal temperature for adsorption of both metal ions was 30°C, and optimal pH for maximum uptake of Mn(II) and Cu(II) were 5 and 6, respectively. Under these conditions, living cells of P. huenov accumulated up to 75.58% of 110 mg/ L Mn(II) and 70.5% of 128 mg/L Cu(II) over 120 h, whereas, the removal efficiency of metal ions by dead cells over 1 h was 60.3% and 56.5%, respectively. These results indicate that living cells are more effective than dead biomass for bioremediation, but that greater time is required. The experimental data extends the potential use of P. huenov in biosorption and bioaccumulation of toxic heavy metals to copper and manganese, two of the most common industrial contaminants.

In this report we describe a new approach in HIV sentinel surveillance that was piloted in Viet Nam in 2009 and is currently being rolled out in all provinces. It comprises a brief behavioural questionnaire added to the HIV sentinel surveillance surveys conducted routinely among people who inject drugs, female sex workers and men who have sex with men. Timely reporting of data from this system has resulted in improvements to HIV prevention efforts for most at-risk populations.