KI and WU Polyomaviruses and CD4+ Cell Counts in HIV-1–infected Patients, Italy

To investigate an association between KI and WU polyomavirus (KIPyV and WUPyV) infections and CD4+ cell counts, we tested HIV-1–positive patients and blood donors. No association was found between cell counts and virus infections in HIV-1–positive patients. Frequency of KIPyV infection was similar for both groups. WUPyV was more frequent in HIV-1–positive patients

Assessment of Medication Use by Publics in Sulaimani Province

Drug uses is a multi-step process starting from consulting doctor, prescribing, ordering and using via individual either public or healthcare staff for therapeutic reasons. This process can be problematic for several reasons, especially in developing countries due to easily access to medications, self-diagnosis and people recommendation for certain cases. The aims of the present study were to assess the practice and attitude of medication uses and the knowledge about medication advantage and their risks by publics in Sulaymaniyah province. Then to build correlations between demographic characteristics and medication uses, in order to show the main impact of widely used medication on public health status. Finally, to provide community with statistical data about the level of knowledge, attitude and practice KAP in this region. The overall six hundred participant from the average of ten locations between governmental and privates hospitals and pharmacies as well as clinics were selected from central city and towns for data collection. The majority of participants were public from different background. The present study concluded that the 60 percentage of the participant were lack of adequate knowledge about the ability for differentiation between analgesic and antibiotic medications. The results of the current study showed inappropriate practices and attitudes that contribute to increasing health risks. It is also found that 72 percentage of participant who use prescription only drugs such as antibiotics can be possibly stopped after situation disappeared. This study also investigated several reasons for inappropriate practice, such as wrong believes with irregular consumption of medications, illiteracy, poor health services in terms of pharmacies and healthcare staff as well as easy access to most of the types of medications. Therefore, effort by governmental authorities is urgent toward reducing the risk of the situation, and negative consequences regarding inappropriate practice toward patient care in the region

Phylogenesis and Clinical Aspects of Pandemic 2009 Influenza A (H1N1) Virus Infection

During the spring of 2009, a new influenza A (H1N1) virus of swine origin emerged and spread worldwide causing a pandemic influenza. Here, 329 naso-pharyngeal swabs collected from patients with flu-like symptoms were analyzed by real-time PCR for the presence of H1N1 2009 pandemic virus. Twenty-five samples collected from immunocompetent and immunodepressed patients contained the H1N1 pandemic virus. Phylogenetic analysis of the hemagglutinin and neuraminidase genes showed no obvious differences in terms of similarity and/or homology between the sequences identified in immunocompetent individuals and those obtained from immunocompromised patients. Pre-existing clinical conditions may influence the outcome of H1N1 disease

Mother’s Characteristics, Knowledge and Practices about Children Burn Injury in Sulaimani City

Burn is described as one of the leading causes of injury throughout the world, and is one of the most frequent causes of hospitalization. The aim of this study was to determine mother’s characteristics, Knowledge and practices for burn injuries and burn infection prevention. A cross sectional descriptive study was undertaken in Sulaimani city, Iraq, from October 2015 to July 2016. Participants were evaluated using a structured questionnaire by face-to-face interview. Data were computerized and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 22.0 software. A total of 126 mothers who had burn injury in their children and admitted to burning hospital during the study period, the mean score knowledge of mothers was (3.63), the mean score practice of mothers accounted (4.63), the respondent practice score ranged from (1-8). They had poor, intermediate, and good score knowledge about burns injury and burn infection 79.37%, 18.25%, and 2.38% respectively. In regard to mother’s related practice, there were 66.67% within poor practice level, 30.95% of an intermediate level, and 2.38% had a good practice level. The study shows that mother knowledge and practice in Sulaimani city in relation to burn injury and infection among their children was at a low level and the local health authority should incorporate health education for parents, especially mothers in the prevention of pediatric burn at home involving hot liquid and flames also other domestic hazardous as well as the important activities after burn or pre-hospital admission

MISSEL: a method to identify a large number of small species-specific genomic subsequences and its application to viruses classification

Continuous improvements in next generation sequencing technologies led to ever-increasing collections of genomic sequences, which have not been easily characterized by biologists, and whose analysis requires huge computational effort. The classification of species emerged as one of the main applications of DNA analysis and has been addressed with several approaches, e.g., multiple alignments-, phylogenetic trees-, statistical- and character-based methods

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice toward Breast Cancer among Kurdish Women in Sulaimani Governorate/ Iraq

Breast cancer is a devastating affliction, the frequency of which is gradually increasing all over the world. Cancer may be cured if properly intervened at the right time. The correct treatment, aided by professionals and the right technology can provide critical life support to breast cancer patients. This study was conducted to assessment knowledge, attitude and practice of breast cancer among Kurdish females visited Maternity Teaching Hospital in Sulaimani. A face-to-face interview through a question¬naire to assessment of knowledge and practices toward breast cancer of 500 non-breast cancer women visited Maternity Teaching Hospital was done. Data were computerized and analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS, version 22). P-value of < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Out of 500 participants in the current study on knowledge and practices toward breast cancer among non-breast cancer women, consequently were 227 (45.4%) and 201 (40.2%) practiced breast self-examination(BSE) and clinical breast examination respectively. In this study the participants having no symptoms and lack of knowledge about how to do BSE where regarded as the barriers of not practicing BSE (44.7%, 55.3%) respectively. The most common reason for not doing clinical breast examination (CBE) is fear of the outcome and no sign & symptom of breast cancer (28.8%, 61.9%) respectively. The high education level showed significantly more knowledge of breast self-examination and mammography than Illiterate women P≤ 0.001 and P≤ 0.03 respectively. On the other hand, the high education level women showed significantly more practice of breast self-examination P≤ 0.001. In conclusion, the present study found the facts to the inadequate knowledge of female about breast cancer and recognized the negative influence of low knowledge on the practice of BSE, CBE and mammography and the breast cancer incidence. Therefore, more determinations are needed to develop a positive attitude toward BSE, CBE and mammography screening and practice in Sulaimani

Assessment of Knowledge and Practice of Various Eye Diseases in Sulaimani: A Descriptive Study

Knowledge and practice of public, especially patients about eye diseases are important to reduce magnitude of human blindness. Vision and sight are very essential because they allow us to connect to each other’s. In accordance to the recently published data; the estimation of 253 million people lives with vision impairment, 36 million are blind and 217 million suffer from moderate to severe vision impairment. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at Shahid Dr. Aso Hospital in Sulaimani city-Iraq, from April to August 2017 by face-to-face interview through close ended questionnaire for data collecting. All data were analyzed by Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 22.0 software. P-value of < 0.05 was considered as a statistically significant. A total of 430 patients were randomly chosen to participate in the study. They were 254 (59.1%) males and 176 (40.9%) females. 76.7% of respondents was worrying about vision loss, 0.7% was worrying about hair loss. Of the participants, 32.8% was with a good knowledge level and 40.5% was with a poor knowledge level, as well as 3.1% was in a good practice and 58.8% was in a poor practice level. Female knowledge mean score was 9.53±4.96 and male knowledge mean score was 8.42±5.45, the practice mean score of males was 4.33±1.96 and mean practice score of females was 4.13±1.93. The study data indicate the worrying of participates about vision loss is in the highest proportion and the awareness and practice of patients about eye diseases is unsatisfactory. Health education campaigns are needed to improve personal awareness about vision related problems and for better eye health

Bacteriological Profile and Antibacterial Sensitivity Patterns of Isolates among Burn Patients in Sulaimani City

Nosocomial infections have increasingly been implicated in transferring fatal septic complications in burn patients. Also multidrug resistant profiles of microorganisms are being increasingly found in burn wounds which are very much alarming due to the limited number effective antibacterial drugs. Retrospective data were collected from burn patients at Sulaimani Burn and Plastic Surgery Hospital between January 2013 and December 2015. Culture& sensitivity tests were performed using wound surface swabs and tissue culture over the three year period. Their results were collected in a predesigned digital form. Statistical analysis was done and results plotted. Out of 500 burn positive swabs samples were previously taken from hospitalized patients, the commonest bacterial isolate were gram-positive bacterial infection; Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) 215(43%) followed by gram-negative bacterial infection; Acinetobacter baumannii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa  95(19%) and 85 (17%). Vancomycin has no any resistant rate for all gram-positive bacteria followed, but Teicoplanin is the second best drug especially, for MRSA 8.4%. Imipenem and Meropenem are antibiotics with no or less resistant rates for most of gram negative bacteria. Resistance to antibiotics is rapidly increasing in our community and burn wounds are frequently infected by these multidrug resistant organisms. Careful antibiotic selection and effective control of these strains can be translated into lower morbidity and mortality for these patients