Anti-Vaccination

Vaccination campaign against smallpox, causing the death of millions of people, has made great progress since the 1700s. The prevalence, morbidity and mortality rates of many diseases such as diphtheria, pertussis, measles, rubella, rabies and tetanus have dramatically decreased through widespread vaccination programs. Vaccine production technology has also advanced considerably over the past two centuries. One billion doses of vaccine are administered each year and the vast majority of it is administered to healthy individuals worldwide. The most stringent measures in terms of design, monitoring and compliance are taken to produce vaccines. Anti-vaccination movement is as old as vaccines themselves. Through organizations, books, leaflets and magazines, anti-vaccination activists disseminated their anti-vaccine arguments leading to serious reductions in vaccination rates. Unfortunately, in times and geographies where they were successful, people suffered from serious epidemics. Interestingly, anti-vaccination discourses similar to those in the past are still prevalent in the 21st century. Due to vaccination, some infectious diseases have become rare, which has led to the emergence of anti-vaccination arguments that claim that vaccines are unnecessary. There has been speculation that vaccine manufacturers have made a huge profit prompting them to control universal vaccination programs, and that side effects of vaccines have been covered up. Allegations have been made that the combination of measles-rubella-mumps vaccines or the use of thiomersal containing ethylmercury as a preservative in some vaccines causes autism. Vaccines have been associated with autoimmune diseases and termination of vaccination programs has been demanded. Although hundreds of studies have been conducted to debunk the allegations and medical authorities have concluded that vaccines are both necessary and safe, opponents of vaccination continue to use current technologies, such as the internet and social media, to influence people’s reliance on vaccination. The success of vaccination strategies depends on people’s perceptions of the benefits or risks of vaccines and on their reliance on vaccination. Another important step in the success of vaccination programs is providing health workers with adequate information on vaccines and anti-vaccination, and informing them how to approach parents who hesitate to vaccinate their children

Investigation of carbapenemase genes and molecular epidemiology of enterobacteriaceae strains isolated between 2010-2014 in a university hospital

PubMed ID: 29642825The worldwide spread of carbapenemase producing Enterobacteriaceae isolates has become a major threat of public health. This worrisome situation leads the development of new methods for carbapenemase screening, detection, prevention of spread and epidemiological data collection as mandatory. In this study, it was aimed to investigate existence and distribution of carbapenemaseencoding genes (CEGs) among carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae isolated from various clinical samples in Ankara University Faculty of Medicine, Ibni Sina Hospital, Central Microbiology Laboratory between June 2010-May 2014 and detect their clonal relationship. A total of 112 non-repetitive Enterobacteriaceae isolates which were intermediate or resistant to ertapenem were identified by using Phoenix (BD Diagnostic Systems, Sparks, USA) automated microbiology system. After DNA extraction from the isolates, 11 carbapenemase-encoding genes (CEGs) (bla IMP , bia VIM , bla SPM , bla KPC , bla NDM , bla OXA-48 , bla GIM , blaSIM, bla AIM , blaDIM ve bla BIC ) were detected with PCR. The clonal relationship among the isolates was determined by PFGE method following digestion with Xbal DNA macrorestriction endonuclease. Among 112 isolates Klebsiella pneumoniae was the most frequent (n= 79, 70.5%) bacteria followed by Escherichia coli (n= 15, 13.4%), Enterobacter cloacae (n= 10, 8.9%), Enterobacter aerogenes (n= 4, 3.6%) and Klebsiella oxytoca (n= 4, 3.6%) respectively. bla OXA-48 was the most frequent gene detected. Among 83 (74.1 %) isolates bla OXA-48 was detected alone and in 7 (6.3%) of the isolates it was identified with bla VIM gene coexistence. bla VIM gene was identified as the second most frequent CEG among the isolates. bla VIM gene was detected positive in 9 (8%) isolates. bla NDM gene was identified in 2 (1.8%) isolates. Ten of the K.pneumoniae isolates with identical PFGE pattern were named as pulsotype B. These isolates were found to be similar in terms of isolate location, isolation dates, antibiotic resistance patterns and the carbapenemase genes they carry, and are considered to be potential outbreak isolates originated from intensive care units. On the other hand CEGs were found in the clinical samples obtained from five out-patients suggesting that community-acquired infections may also arise due to carbapenemase producing Enterobacteriaceae in our country where bla OXA-48 producers are endemic. According to this study, bla OXZ-48 producing gram negative bacteria were frequent in our hospital. The prevalance of bla VIM gene among metallo-beta-lactamases and coexistence with bla OXA-48 gene was remarkable. The frequency of bla NDM producing isolates in our hospital was not detected as high yet. In this study, the identification of carbapenemase producing bacteria as outbreak strains in our hospital indicated that cross-sectional surveillance for carbapenemase-producing bacteria from each patient was valuable in terms of early diagnosis of outbreaks. © 2018 Ankara Microbiology Society. All rights reserved

Investigation of Carbapenem resistance mechanisms in Klebsiella pneumoniae by using phenotypic tests and a molecular assay

Introduction: The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of carbapenemase production and carbapenem resistance mechanisms in 47 carbapenem resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates by phenotypic confirmatory tests and molecular assay. Methodology: Carbapenem resistance genes KPC, OXA-48 and NDM were investigated with the BD MAX CRE assay kit in the BD MAX real time PCR instrument. Modified Hodge test, MBL gradient strip test, D70C Carbapenemase Detection Set, Temocillin gradient strip test methods were used as phenotypic confirmatory tests. Clonal relationship between study isolates was investigated with pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Results: Analysis with BD MAX CRE assay revealed OXA-48 positivity in 17 (36%) strains, NDM positivity in 6 (13%) strains and coexistence of OXA-48 + NDM positivity in 8 (17%) strains. In 16 (34%) strains, none of the KPC, OXA-48 and NDM genes were detected. While MHT was the most sensitive phenotypic confirmatory test, D70C disc set had not been considered as a useful tool to assist the search for carbapenemase production. Temocillin gradient test alone could not be considered as sufficient to detect the presence of OXA-48. PFGE analyses revealed that 23 of 31 carbapenemase producing strains were in three major PFGE genotypes (A, B and C). Conclusions: This study revealed that carbapenem resistance observed in K. pneumoniae isolates was mainly due to OXA-48 and NDM genes and the increase of carbapenem resistance among K. pneumoniae strains in our hospital was due to the interhospital spread of especially 3 epidemic clones. © 2019 Ciftci et al.Firat University Scientific Research Projects Management Unit, FÃœBAP: 4093-TU1-14This study was supported by Suleyman Demirel University Scientific Research Projects Unit with project number 4093-TU1-14

Prevalence of HBsAg seropositivity during pregnancy and evaluation of vaccination programs: A multicenter study in Turkey

OBJECTIVE: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection remains a global public health problem. Among its modes of transmission, vertical transmission from mother to child during pregnancy is exceedingly important. This study investigated seropositivity for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) among pregnant women aged 16-49 years and their pregnancy outcomes in several health institutions (university and state hospitals, family health centers) from seven cities in Turkey. METHODS: An Excel form was sent to the sites participating in the study, and the total number of pregnant women who were tested for HBsAg between 2010 and 2017, HBsAg positivity rates, and the ages of HBsAg-positive pregnant women was collected retrospectively. Serum samples were obtained from 204,865 pregnant women from four regions between 2010 and 2017, including 107,463 from Black Sea, 2306 from Marmara, 48,339 from East Anatolia, and 46,757 from Aegean. HBsAg levels were determined on automated devices using chemiluminescence. RESULTS: In the study, the data of 204,865 pregnant women from seven different provinces (Afyonkarahisar, Erzurum, Istanbul, Izmir, Manisa, Mus, and Rize) in different geographical regions were accessed, and HBsAg positivity was found in 2343 pregnant women (1.14%). The highest HBsAg seroprevalence was found in women who were older 26-40 years/1977-1991 birth year range on average. In the data of the present study, the number of pregnant women with HBsAg positivity among pregnant women born after the initiation of the national vaccination program and catch-up vaccination program is only 124 and constitutes 5.3% of all HBsAg-positive pregnant women CONCLUSION: In this study, it has been found that HBsAg positivity in pregnant women has been decreasing in Turkey and that it is significantly lower, especially in those born after the initiation of the national vaccination program. Continuation of national neonatal HBV vaccination with high compliance is very important

Disappearance of Biodiversity and Future of Our Foods

“I. Uluslararası Organik Tarım ve Biyoçeşitlilik Sempozyumu 27-29 Eylül Bayburt