Currently some parasitic and viral infections, tuberculosis, brucellosis and hospital-acquired infections are challenging issues in Iran. Despite decreasing the rate of some infectious diseases in Iran in recent years, improved sanitation, active surveillance, comprehensive infection control strategies and monitoring appropriate use of antibiotics are indispensable. Â© 2018 The Autho

Darban-Sarokhalil, D.

eprints Iran University of Medical Sciences

EDITORIALInfections in IranD. Darban-SarokhalilDepartment of Microbiology, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IranAbstractCurrently some parasitic and viral infections, tuberculosis, brucellosis and hospital-acquired infections are challenging issues in Iran. Despitedecreasing the rate of some infectious diseases in Iran in recent years, improved sanitation, active surveillance, comprehensive infectioncontrol strategies and monitoring appropriate use of antibiotics are indispensable.Keywords: Incidence, infectious diseases, Iran, prevalenceOriginal Submission: 2 September 2018; Revised Submission: 2 October 2018; Accepted: 18 October 2018Article published online: 25 October 2018Corresponding author: D. Darban-Sarokhalil, Department ofMicrobiology, Faculty of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences,Tehran, Iran.E-mail: darban.d@iums.ac.irInfectious diseases still cause death worldwide, especially indeveloping countries. Over the past decades the incidence of in-fectious diseases, particularly parasitic ones, has decreased signifi-cantly in Iran. Shifting in the causes of death from infectious diseasesto noncommunicable diseases shows the success of improvedsanitary measures and effective national surveillance. However,cutaneous leishmaniasis, hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus(HCV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), tuberculosis (TB),brucellosis and hospital-acquired infections are still challenging is-sues [1]. In the case of viral infections, the infections caused byHIV,HBV, HCV and recently Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virusare the most important infections, and gastrointestinal and respi-ratory infections are the most common infections.Despite a dramatic decline in its prevalence, HBV remainsthe main cause of acute hepatitis in adults [1]. In recent years,for sociocultural reasons, the rate of HIV has increased in Iran,and currently the number of HIV-infected people is estimatedto be almost 110 000. According to the most recent reports,HIV is commonly transmitted by injection (67%) and sexualcontact (18%) (http://aids.ir/Info) [2]. During the past two de-cades an increased rate of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic feverhas been reported from almost all parts of Iran. The virus isThis is an open access artioften transmitted by ticks, and less commonly through closecontact with infected patients [1,3]. In parasitic infections,echinococcosis and cutaneous leishmaniasis are endemic in-fections, but malaria is in the preelimination phase [3]. AlthoughTB is one of the most important diseases in developing coun-tries, great success has been achieved in decreasing the TBprevalence from 40 to 14 cases per 100 000 population in Iranin the past 50 years.The incidence of multidrug-resistant TB varies from 1.3% to8.3% for new cases and previously treated cases, respectively[4]. The reasons for this success in controlling TB are mainlythe launching of nine regional laboratories of TB as well asimprovements in diagnosis and treatment. Because of theincreasing incidence of immunodeficiency diseases such asAIDS, and as a result of the significant improvements in labo-ratory diagnostic methods in recent years, diseases caused bynontuberculous mycobacteria such as Mycobacterium simiae,Mycobacterium fortuitum, Mycobacterium kansasii and Mycobac-terium intracellulare are rising [5]. Despite a substantial decline inthe incidence of human brucellosis in the past decades,brucellosis remains endemic in all parts of Iran. Moreover,plague, leptospirosis, tularaemia and Q fever are some of theemerging and reemerging bacterial infections.The most common hospital-acquired infections in Iran areurinary tract infections, pneumonia, and surgical site andbloodstream infections [1,3]. In recent years, as a result of theoveruse and/or inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics, therehas been a dramatic increase in the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains. Resistance to colistin, the last-New Microbe and New Infect 2019; 27: 7–8© 2018 The Author. Published by Elsevier Ltdcle under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nmni.2018.10.0078 New Microbes and New Infections, Volume 27 Number C, January 2019 NMNIresort agent against multidrug-resistant/extensively drug-resis-tant Gram-negative bacteria, has recently been detected amongthe clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae [6]. Furthermore,some Gram-positive cocci (staphylococci and enterococci)have developed resistance to critical antibiotics so that theprevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus andvancomycin-resistant enterococci have been found to be 43%and 9.4% respectively [7,8], and there are some reports onvancomycin-resistant S. aureus [9].Despite a substantial reduction in the rate of some infectiousdiseases in Iran in recent years, we need improved sanitation aswell as better active surveillance systems and comprehensiveinfection control strategies. We also need to monitor theappropriate use of antibiotics.Conflict of interestNone declared.References[1] Askarian M, Mansour Ghanaie R, Karimi A, Habibzadeh F. Infectiousdiseases in Iran: a bird’s eye view. Clin Microbiol Infect 2012;18:1081–8.© 2018 The Author. Published by Elsevier Ltd, NMNI, 27, 7–8This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/lice[2] Heidary M, Nasiri MJ. Why has HIV/AIDS prevalence increased in Iran?Clin Infect Dis 2016;15:846. 63.[3] Parhizgari N, Gouya MM, Mostafavi E. Emerging and re-emerging in-fectious diseases in Iran. Iran J Microbiol 2017;9:122–42.[4] World Health Organization. Iran (Islamic Republic of). Tuberculosisprofile. 2017. https://extranet.who.int/sree/Reports?op=Replet&name=%2FWHO_HQ_Reports%2FG2%2FPROD%2FEXT%2FTBCountryProfile&ISO2=IR&LAN=EN&outtype=html.[5] Nasiri MJ, Dabiri H, Darban-Sarokhalil D, Shahraki Hashemi. Prevalenceof non-tuberculosis mycobacterial infections among tuberculosis sus-pects in Iran: systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS One 2015;8:e0129073. 10.[6] Haeili M, Javani A, Moradi J, Jafari Z, Feizabadi MM, Babaei E. MgrB al-terations mediate colistin resistance in Klebsiella pneumoniae isolatesfrom Iran. Front Microbiol 2017;8:2470.[7] Emaneini M, Hosseinkhani F, Jabalameli F, Nasiri MJ, Dadashi M,Pouriran R, et al. Prevalence of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus inIran: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Eur J Clin Microbiol InfectDis 2016;35:1387–92.[8] Dadashi M, Nasiri MJ, Fallah F, Owlia P, Hajikhani B, Emaneini M,et al. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in Iran: asystematic review and meta-analysis. J Glob Antimicrob Resist2018;12:96–103.[9] Emaneini M, Aligholi M, Hashemi FB, Jabalameli F, Shahsavan S, Dabiri H,et al. Isolation of vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in ateaching hospital in Tehran. J Hosp Infect 2007;66:92–3.nses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Infections in Iran

http://eprints.iums.ac.ir/15186/1/Infections-in-Iran2019New-Microbes-and-New-InfectionsOpen-Access.pdf

Infections in Iran

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

eprints Iran University of Medical Sciences