Knowledge and Prejudice about HIV/AIDS among Physicians and Nurses at a University Hospital

INTRODUCTION: The prejudice of healthcare personnel may be reflected as an important problem in patient follow-up. This study aimed to evaluate knowledge and prejudice regarding HIV/AIDS among physicians and nurses working in a university hospital. METHODS: The sample size of this cross-sectional study was calculated as 191 by taking distance from confidence limit(s) to mean 1 and standard deviation 7 in two-sided 95% confidence interval. In Dicle University Hospitals, 6 nurses, 4 assistant physicians and 1 specialist physician/lecturer/teaching staff were invited by random sampling method from each of the 23 clinics. Total of 218 physicians and nurses were included. A questionnaire including demographic variables and 30 statements about HIV/AIDS was applied. The data obtained were analyzed using R-3.5.1 program. RESULTS: 33.5% of the participants stated that they were involved in the follow-up of a HIV-infected patient. The mean HIV knowledge score was 76.3+-13.7; higher in men(78.9+-13.5) and doctors(83.2+-11.1). The mean HIV prejudice score was 39.0+-21.2; higher in nurses(42.0+-22.3) and lower in participants with HIV-infected relatives/friends(23,6+-14,3). There was a weak negative correlation between HIV knowledge and prejudice scores. 40.6% of the participants stated that HIV/AIDS is not a curable disease. 52.5 percent stated that they would not prefer to follow HIV/AIDS patients. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Considering that the healthcare professionals working in Turkey, which is located in a high endemic area in terms of HIV/AIDS, will encounter this disease more, the results are worrying. Health personnel should be considered as a special group in all studies that will be done to reduce HIV/AIDS stigma

CLP1 Founder Mutation Links tRNA Splicing and Maturation to Cerebellar Development and Neurodegeneration

SummaryNeurodegenerative diseases can occur so early as to affect neurodevelopment. From a cohort of more than 2,000 consanguineous families with childhood neurological disease, we identified a founder mutation in four independent pedigrees in cleavage and polyadenylation factor I subunit 1 (CLP1). CLP1 is a multifunctional kinase implicated in tRNA, mRNA, and siRNA maturation. Kinase activity of the CLP1 mutant protein was defective, and the tRNA endonuclease complex (TSEN) was destabilized, resulting in impaired pre-tRNA cleavage. Germline clp1 null zebrafish showed cerebellar neurodegeneration that was rescued by wild-type, but not mutant, human CLP1 expression. Patient-derived induced neurons displayed both depletion of mature tRNAs and accumulation of unspliced pre-tRNAs. Transfection of partially processed tRNA fragments into patient cells exacerbated an oxidative stress-induced reduction in cell survival. Our data link tRNA maturation to neuronal development and neurodegeneration through defective CLP1 function in humans

Mycoplasma pneumoniae meningoencephalitis: a case report

Nervous system is the most affected area in mycoplasma pneumoniae infections with exception of respiratory system. It is an important agent of childhood acute encephalitis and respiratory system infections in school-age children and young adults. Routine clinical and laboratory findings to identify spesific diagnosis is limited. Twelve-year-old female patient was admitted with fever, fatigue, sore throat, slipping the right eye, withdrawal of the mouth from the right and right hemiclonic seizures. Test of anti-Mycoplasma pneumoniae (M. pneumoniae) IgM was positive and IgG antibodies were found to be 4-fold increase in the sera of follow-up. This article was presented with the aim of remembering M. pneumoniae to be an differential diagnosis in children with acute encephalitis

Atypical presentation of herpes zoster in a case with acute myeloblastic leukemia

Herpes zoster (HZ) is often associated with painful erythematous vesicular eruptions of the skin or mucous membranes. Approximately 10% to 30% of the population will suffer from HZ during their lifetime. HZ is infrequent in healthy children. However, diminished cellular immunity seems to increase risk of reactivation because incidence increases with age and in immunocompromised states. We report a 7-year-old girl with acute myeloblastic leukemia HZ infection on the right palmar, elbow and forearm region (C7, C8 and T1 dermatomes). We want to indicate unusual localization of HZ on the acute myeloblastic leukemia child patient

Colistin use in critically ill neonates: AÂ caseâcontrol study

Background: The aim of this study was to assess the safety and efficacy of colistin use in critically ill neonates. Methods: This was a caseâcontrol study that included newborn infants with proven or suspected nosocomial infections between January 2012 and October 2015, at two centers in Diyarbakir, Turkey. The clinical and laboratory characteristics and outcomes of patients who received colistin therapy were reviewed and compared to patients who were treated with antimicrobial agents other than colistin during the same period. Results: Forty-seven cases who received intravenous colistin (colistin group) and 59 control patients (control group) were included. There were no significant differences between the groups regarding outcomes and nephrotoxicity, including acute renal failure. Colistin therapy was associated with significantly reduced serum magnesium (1.38 ± 0.39 mg/dL vs. 1.96 ± 0.39 mg/dL, p < 0.001) and hypokalemia (46.8% vs. 25.4%, p = 0.026). The patients who received colistin also had longer hospital stays (43 (32â70) days vs. 39 (28â55) days, p = 0.047), a higher rate of previous carbapenem exposure (40.4% vs. 11.9%, p = 0.001), and a higher age at the onset of infection (13 (10â21) days vs. 11 (9â15) days, p = 0.03). Conclusion: This study showed that colistin was both effective and safe for treating neonatal infections caused by multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacteria. However, intravenous colistin use was significantly associated with hypomagnesemia and hypokalemia. Key Words: colistin, neonate, nosocomial infection, multi-drug resistant, gram-negative bacteri

Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy in Sjögren-Larsson Syndrome

Sjögren-Larsson syndrome (SLS) is a rare neurocutane­ous disease showing an autosomal recessive transmis­sion due to a lack of fatty acid aldehyde dehydrogenase. Spastic diplegia or triplegia, mental retardation and con­genital lamellar ichthyosis are the major findings of the disease. The syndrome may be accompanied by various eye and teeth features, skeletal system anomaly, speak­ing defects, hypertelorism and epilepsy. A 9-month male patient has been hospitalized for convulsion and flaking on body. The patient history showed that flaking skin thickening and peeling was started at the birth, and he suffered a right-side focused seizure when he was three month-old and he was treated with phenobarbital and car­bamazepine upon the epilepsy diagnosis. Wide ichthyo­sis, hypertelorism and bilateral simian line were observed in the physical examination. Bilateral punctuate lesions in cornea, pigment epithelial atrophy in the right eye and esotropia in the left eye have been determined during the eye examination. An epiteliform anomaly has been ob­served in the left hemisphere by electroencephalography. In brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), an increase in cerebral-cerebellar brain parenchyma and T1-T2 relax­ation time and in the signal in corpus callosum (delayed myelination) have been determined. With the observa­tion of the white matter in centrum semi oval using brain MRI spectroscopy, signs of a sphingolipid peak at 1.3 ppm have been observed. An SLS diagnosis has been proposed upon clinical and laboratory observations. We want to emphasize on the fact that in epilepsy cases with ichthyosis, SLS should be considered