Salmonella meningitis a rare presentation in adult

Salmonella is a leading cause of food-borne infections worldwide. There are more than 2500 different serovars of salmonella enterica found to date, causing primarily gastroenteritis. However, the infection may occur elsewhere and produce characteristic clinical syndromes. Meningitis is a rare complication that occurs in less than 1% of clinical salmonellosis

Frequency of Carbapenem, Colistin and Tigecycline Resistant Enterobacteriacae in Medical ICU of a Tertiary Care Hospital in Karachi

BACKGROUND: Resistance to antibiotics among Enterobacteriacae represents a serious therapeutic and infection control challenge. The objective of this study was to determine the frequency of carbapenem, colistin and tigecycline resistant Enterobacteriaceae isolates obtained from patients admitted in medical intensive care unit (ICU) of a tertiary care hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. METHODS: This was a descriptive cross sectional study that was conducted at Liaquat National Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi, Pakistan during December 2015 to May 2016. Patients admitted in the medical ICU with systemic inflammatory response syndrome were included. The culture positive samples were analyzed for further identification and antimicrobial sensitivity was performed according to clinical laboratory standard institute (CLSI) 2014 guidelines. RESULTS: Of the 748 samples, 177 were positive for Enterobactericae. Most samples were taken from blood 75(42.2%) or tracheal secretions 67(37.9%). Most common organism isolated were Klebsiella pneumoniae 77(43.5%) and Escherichia coli 71(40.1%). Out of these 10.7% organisms were resistant to meropenem, while 2.8% and 20.3% were resistant to colistin and tigecycline respectively. CONCLUSION: Increasing spread of drug resistance among Enterobacteriacae reflects an important problem that can be controlled with effective policies of infection control, surveillance and antimicrobial stewardship

Flood 2022 in Pakistan: Managing medical flood relief camps in a developing country

Floods are the most common natural disasters in the world. Currently Pakistan is in an acute emergency situation due to the recent flood that occurred as a result of the monsoon rains in July–August 2022. Unfortunately, the country was already under an economic crisis and was just recovering from the COVID pandemic when this devastating calamity struck. Almost one-third of the country's land was affected, with millions of houses damaged and property lost. As the victims are displaced and local health units are flooded, their medical needs are being met through medical flood relief camps arranged by public and private sector welfare organizations. Due to a lack of disaster preparedness and policies, most of the healthcare workers are untrained to manage medical flood relief camps and are hence learning from experience rather than following any standardized policy guidelines. We did not find any guidelines for organization and management of a flood relief camp in previous literature. As natural disasters continue to cause mass destruction every few years, there is a need to devise policies and procedures for disaster preparedness and hazard reduction. This paper is thus an effort to provide the best possible delivery of acute health services in a developing country during and after a flood in the transit phase, while the government and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) help communities rebuild their health system

The Impact of Covid- 19 Pandemic on Mental Well-Being of Health Care Workers: A Multicenter Study

The study determines the effect of fear of being infected on anxiety and influence of anxiety on the disturbance of their mental well-being and to analyze the indirect effect of anxiety between fear of being infected and mental well-being. Cross-Sectional study carried out in the months of November –December 2020, by conducting a survey from health care workers (Doctors, Nurses and Trainees) covering hospitals from the region of Hyderabad, Jamshoro and Karachi. Analysis of the data done using two-step method of Structural Equation Model (SEM) approach. The findings of the study supported the positive and negative relationship fear of being infected to anxiety and anxiety to mental wellbeing respectively. In addition, the indirect relationship of anxiety also supported. Numerous unanswered queries pertinent to COVID-19 pandemic, and dubious situation leads towards huge size of disturbance in the lives of health care workers across the globe, therefore literature entails the necessity for researchers to study various factors that could have influence on mental well-being of an individual . The majority of relevant literature focused on mental well-being is from China, Europe, USA and other developed countries, however, fewer studies focused on South Asian region in general, and Pakistan in particular. So, present study fills the gap to unearth the factors of well-being for Pakistani health care workers. Pakistan have so far lost the lives of 58 healthcare providers to COVID-19 in the country and still counting while 240 healthcare providers are hospitalized. So there is intense need to study effect of mental well-being on health care workers as there is a need to save the survivors

Successful treatment of hepatitis C in renal transplant recipient. A case report from Pakistan

The treatment of hepatitis C is a therapeutic challenge in renal transplant recipients. Interferon based regimens are relatively contraindicated due to their side effects and high risk of graft failure. With the availability of direct antivirals the situation has changed now and sustained virological response (SVR)\u3e90% had been achieved in patients with normal kidney function. There is limited data available on the safety of these agents in renal transplant recipients. Here we report a case of a kidney transplant recipient with Hepatitis C genotype 3 infections successfully treated with Sofosbuvir and Daclatasvir based regimen. This is the first reported case from Pakistan