Invasive device-associated nosocomial infections of a teaching hospital in Turkey; four years' experience

WOS: 000288413100019Aim: To determine our setting's IDAI rates, infecting microorganisms, and their resistance patterns to achieve standardization and make comparisons among other Turkish and developed country hospitals all over the world. Materials and methods: The numbers of total patient days, ventilator days, central catheter days and, urinary catheter days in the ICUs were recorded and IDAI rates were calculated. Clinical specimens were obtained from patients, cultivated at appropriate culture media, and infecting microorganisms and resistance patterns were determined. Results: Totally 1450 invasive device-associated infection episodes were determined (16.4% of patients) with a rate of 21.12/1000 days. Ventilator associated pneumonia rate was 22.05/1000 ventilator days and most common microorganism was Acinetobacter baumannii. Central catheter associated blood stream infection rate was 9.14/1000 central catheter days and the most common infecting organism was A. baumannii. Catheter associated urinary infection rate was 10.12/1000 urinary catheter days and the most common pathogen was Candida species. MRSA rate decreased from 89.6% in 2006 to 61.8% in 2009 (P < 0.001). ESBL production rates were between 70.7% and 45.6% in Escherichia coli and 66.7% and 55.9% in Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates. Vancomycin resistance among Enterococci was between 34.3% and 21.7% in these years. Conclusion: Our hospital infection rates were found to be similar to those of country data but higher than those in developed nations. Considering the high infection and resistance rates to most of the available antibiotics, it is highly urgent that infection control measures be taken and more effective antibiotic control policies be adopted

Toxoplasma encephalitis: an HIV / AIDS patient with cerebral mass

WOS: 000399405200030Toxoplasmic encephalitis is an opportunistic infection, which develops as a result of reactivation of the latent tissue cysts of Toxoplasma gondii in patients with reduced CD4+ T lymphocytes. Amongst patients with human immunodeficiency virus or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, toxoplasmic encephalitis is one of the leading causes of the intracerebral involvement. In this report, we present a toxoplasmic encephalitis case, who has admitted with neurological symptoms and fever. The patient was identified human immunodeficiency virus positive while he was under investigation for cerebral mass lesion, The patient has fully recovered by antiprotozoal and antiretroviral therapy

Effect of Heterologous Vaccination Strategy on Humoral Response against COVID-19 with CoronaVac plus BNT162b2: A Prospective Cohort Study

This study aimed to evaluate the mixed and homogeneous application of the inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine CoronaVac (CV) and the mRNA vaccine BNT162b2 (BNT). This prospective cohort study included 235 health care workers who had received two prime shots with CoronaVac. They were divided into three cohorts after the third month: Cohort-I (CV/CV); Cohort-II (CV/CV/CV); and Cohort-III (CV/CV/BNT). Anti-S-RBD-IgG and total anti-spike/anti-nucleocapsid-IgG antibody concentrations were examined in vaccinated health workers at the 1st, 3rd, and 6th months following the second dose of the vaccination. The mean age of 235 health care workers who participated in the project was 39.51 &plusmn; 10.39 (min-max: 22&ndash;64). At the end of the 6th month, no antibodies were detected in 16.7% of Cohort-I participants, and anti-S-RDB IgG levels showed a decrease of 60% compared to the levels of the 3rd month. The antibody concentrations of the 6th month were found to have increased by an average of 5.13 times compared to the 3rd-month levels in Cohort-II and 20.4 times in Cohort-III. The heterologous vaccination strategy &ldquo;CoronaVac and BNT162b2 regimen&rdquo; is able to induce a stronger humoral immune response and it will help remove inequalities in the developing world where CoronaVac was the initial prime

The relationship between brucellosis and vitamin D

WOS: 000373443300012PubMed ID: 26927460Introduction: This study was aimed to determine the relationship between vitamin D and soluble vitamin D receptor (VDR) levels and brucellosis, a common infection in Turkey, in which the cellular immune system is important in the course of the disease. Methodology: Patients who had been followed up in the Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology of Cukurova University Medical Faculty, having been diagnosed with brucellosis and who had no brucellosis treatment before, were enrolled in the study along with healthy controls. The participants' vitamin D and soluble VDR values were recorded. Laboratory parameters of patients and controls, clinical findings, and disease course of brucellosis patients were also noted. Results: The mean age of the 86 brucellosis patients, of whom 38 (44.2%) were males and 48 (55.8%) were females, was 40.9 +/- 18.4 years. Complicated course of brucellosis rate was found to be 29.1%. Vitamin D and VDR levels were lower in brucellosis patients at the time of diagnosis compared to control group. For males, vitamin D and VDR levels were higher in the control group than in the patient group. In males, VDR levels were higher than in females. A significant difference was not found between clinical forms of the disease and vitamin D and VDR levels. Conclusions: Vitamin D and VDR levels were shown to be significantly lower in brucellosis patients before treatment compared to the control group. These results suggest that vitamin D could be involved in the pathogenesis of the disease

Clinical appearance of brucellosis in adults: fourteen years of experience

Aim: To indicate the clinical course and results of brucellosis in our region during the recent years, and to compare these findings to the literature

Tetanus in an intensive care unit of a Turkish hospital: Patient analysis of a 6-year period

Aim: To retrospectively evaluate the clinical features of patients admitted to the medical intensive care unit (ICU) of our hospital between January 2001 and May 2007 due to tetanus