A prospective antibiotic point prevalence survey in two primary referral hospitals during and after pilgrims stay in Madinah, Saudi Arabia

Purpose: To assess current patterns of antibiotic use by carrying out two point-prevalence surveys (PPS) in Madinah after the return of hajj pilgrims from Makkah and when Madinah is free from pilgrims. Methods: In September 2016 and November 2016, a prospective PPS was conducted on two separate dates (during the hajj pilgrims stay in Madinah and after they leave). Data on antibiotics use were generated during these two periods. This involved an audit from all the departments of two referral hospitals (King Fahad Hospital (KFH) - 425 beds, and Al Ansar Hospital - 100 beds) of inpatients records. Data were collected using standard forms adapted from the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC). Results: A total of 675 inpatients were included in PPS; among them, 332 (49.18 %) patients were receiving antibiotic therapy. In September 2016, 168 patients were treated with antibiotics, with a prevalence rate of 50.60 %, whereas, in November 2016, the prevalence rate was 49.40 %. Overall, 198 patients were identified in surgical wards, of which 132 patients (66.6 %) were receiving antibiotic therapy; 121 patients in ICU of which 70 patients (57.8 %) received antibiotics; 13 patients in other wards of which 6 (46.1 %) received antibiotic treatment; and 343 patients in medical wards of which 126 patients (36.7 %) were treated with antibiotics. There was no significant difference in prevalence of antibiotic prescribing between the two surveys (Pearson Chi-square test, p = 0.56) and with regards to patient age between the two surveys (Mann-Whitney U-test, p = 0.32). Conclusion: The results demonstrate that antibiotic use with adherence to hospital guidelines and PPS helps in identifying targets for quality improvement. Moreover, to escalate the prudent use of antibiotics in hospitals, PPS provides a useful tool. Furthermore, this survey provides a background to evaluate antibiotic use by a standardized methodology. Keywords: Point prevalence survey, Antibiotic use, Prescribing practices, Antibiotic resistance, Quality improvement, Antibiotic stewardship, Hajj, Pilgrim

Chlorhexidine versus Povidone-Iodine for the prevention of ‎Surgical Site ‎Infections: A review.‎

BackgroundSurgical Site Infections (SSIs) are the third most frequently reported health care-associated ‎infection‎ and it remain a major clinical problem despite improvements in prevention, as they ‎are associated with ‎significant mortality and morbidity. Prevention strategies for SSIs are based ‎on reducing the risk of infection by bacteria, So many antiseptic agents are ‎used, the most ‎common one are Chlorhexidine and Povidone-Iodine.‎AimsTo discuss the ‎findings of RCTs that compare Chlorhexidine versus Povidone-Iodine in the prevention of ‎Surgical ‎Site ‎Infections (SSIs).‎Methods This systematic review was carried out, including PubMed, Google Scholar, and EBSCO that ‎examining randomized trials of Chlorhexidine and Povidone-Iodine to summarize the major ‎RCT that compare Chlorhexidine versus Povidone-Iodine in the prevention of Surgical Site ‎Infections (SSIs).‎Results The review included six randomized studies that compare between Chlorhexidine and Povidone-‎Iodine for the prevention of SSIs. The findings showed that many studies prefer using ‎Chlorhexidine over Povidine-Iodine to reduce SSIs, few studies prefer using PVI as antiseptic ‎and other studies reported that there is no significant difference between both. ConclusionMajority of results prefer using Chlorhexidine than Povidone-Iodine‎ as antiseptics but ‎there were few findings prefer ‎PVI and other studies reported that there was no significant ‎difference between using them as ‎antiseptics.

Multiobjective evolutionary algorithms NSGA-II and NSGA-III for software product lines testing optimization

Software Product line (SPL) engineering methodology utilizes reusable components to generate a new system for a specific domain. In fact, the product line establishes requirements, reusable components, architecture, and shared products to develop new products’ functionalities. In order to maintain high quality, there is a need for a thorough testing process. Each product in SPL having a different number of features need to be tested. Hence, the testing process of SPL can utilize a multi-objective optimization algorithm to optimize the testing process. This research, reports on the performance of a multi-objective Evolutionary Algorithms Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) and NSGA-III on Feature Models (FMs) to optimize SPL testing