Human Body Burden of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Antibiotics Susceptibility Pattern and Presence of Extended Spectrum β-lactamase and Carbapenemase encoding Genes in Lagos State, Nigeria

Pseudomonas aeruginosa, frequently associated with a wide range of community and nosocomial infections, is notorious for being resistant to several classes of antibiotics with only a handful of antibiotics still effective. This study determined the human body burden of P. aeruginosa as well as antibiotics susceptibility pattern and presence of extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) and carbapenemase encoding genes in Lagos state, Nigeria using standard methods. Out of 103 bacterial cultures collected, 31 P. aeruginosa isolates were obtained, mostly originating from wound and urine samples. High rates of antibiotics resistance were observed to fluoroquinolone and cephalosporins with 24 (77.4%) resistant to ciprofloxacin, 19 (61.3) to cefotaxime, and 18 (58.1%) to ceftriaxone as well as amoxicillin clavulanic acid. However, resistance to ceftazidime and meropenem were low with only 6 (19.4%) and 5 (16.1%) resistant isolates respectively. ESBL production was detected in 10 (32.3%) of the isolates with ESBL genes detected in 6 (60%) of the 10 isolates. Ceftazidime and meropenem are viable therapeutic options for P. aeruginosa infections. Selection and dissemination of ESBL producing P. aeruginosa must be curtailed to prevent the loss of efficacy in currently available viable therapeutic options

HIV Seropositivity in Children with Sickle Cell Disease

Background: Blood transfusion forms an integral part of management of sickle cell disease. Blood transfusion is also established as a route of transmission of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), especially in developing nations that are lacking in properly organized blood transfusion services. Methods: A retrospective study of randomly selected sickle cell anaemia patients screened for HIV antibodies in the paediatric haematology clinic of A.B.U.T.H., Zaria, Nigeria. Results: Twenty-nine (52.7%) males and 26 (47.3%) females were studied. Mean age (\ub1 1 standard deviation) was 68.5 \ub137.0 months. One (1.8%) of 55 patients was HIV-seropositive. The parents of this patient were HIV-seronegative. Twenty-five (45.5%) had positive history of blood transfusion and 22 (40.0%) had intramuscular injections outside the teaching hospital setting. Conclusion: The HIV-seropositive rate in this study is well below national estimates but highlights the continued risks of inadequate blood banking systems.Fond : La transfusion sanguine fait partie int\ue9grale du traitement de la dr\ue9panocytose. La transfusion sanguine est \ue9galement \ue9tablie comme voie de la transmission du virus d'immunod\ue9ficit humain (VIH), particuli\ue8rement dans les pays en voie de d\ue9veloppement qui manquent les services de transfusion sanguine proprement organis\ue9s. M\ue9thode : Une \ue9tude r\ue9trospective des malades dr\ue9panocytose al\ue9atoirement choisis et interview\ue9s pour des anticorps de VIH dans la clinique p\ue9diatrique de h\ue9matologie d'A.B.U.T.H., Zaria, Nig\ue9ria. R\ue9sultats : Vingt-neuf (52,7%) m\ue2les et 26 (47,3%) femelles ont \ue9t\ue9 \ue9tudi\ue9s. L'\ue2ge moyen (\ue9cart type de \ub1 1) \ue9tait de 68,5 \ub137,0 mois. Un (1,8%) de 55 malades \ue9tait VIH-s\ue9ropositif. Les parents de ces malades \ue9taient VIH-s\ue9ropositifs. Vingt-cinq (45,5%) ont eu l'histoire positive de la transfusion sanguine et 22 (40,0%) ont eu des injections intramusculaires \ue0 l'ext\ue9rieur de l'h\uf4pital d'enseignement

HIV SEROPOSITIVITY IN CHILDREN WITH SICKLE CELL DISEASE

Background: Blood transfusion forms an integral part of management of sickle cell disease. Blood transfusion is also established as a route of transmission of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), especially in developing nations that are lacking in properly organized blood transfusion services. Methods: A retrospective study of randomly selected sickle cell anaemia patients screened for HIV antibodies in the paediatric haematology clinic of A.B.U.T.H., Zaria, Nigeria. Results: Twenty-nine (52.7%) males and 26 (47.3%) females were studied. Mean age (± 1 standard deviation) was 68.5 ±37.0 months. One (1.8%) of 55 patients was HIV-seropositive. The parents of this patient were HIV-seronegative. Twenty-five (45.5%) had positive history of blood transfusion and 22 (40.0%) had intramuscular injections outside the teaching hospital setting. Conclusion: The HIV-seropositive rate in this study is well below national estimates but highlights the continued risks of inadequate blood banking systems

Experimental Testing of Bandstop Wave Filter to Mitigate Wave Reflections in Bilateral Teleoperation

A bilateral teleoperation system can become unstable in the presence of a modest time delay. However, the wave variable algorithm provides stable operation for any fixed time delay using passivity arguments. Unfortunately, the wave variable method produces wave reflection that can degrade teleoperation performance when a mismatched impedance exists between the master and slave robot. In this work, we develop a novel bandstop wave filter and experimentally verify that the technique can mitigate the effects of wave reflections in bilaterally teleoperated systems. We apply the bandstop wave filter in the wave domain and filtered the wave signal along the communication channel. We placed the bandstop wave filter in the master-to-slave robot path to alleviate lower frequency components of the reflected signal. With the lower frequency components reduced, wave reflections that degrade teleoperation performance were mitigated and we obtained a better transient response from the system. Results from our experiment show that the bandstop wave filter performed better by 67% when compared to the shaping wave filter respectively