The impact of health literacy on COVID-19 immunization.

The COVID-19 pandemic can be controlled by vaccination in addition to public health measures. This study investigate the impact of Health Literacy (HL) on vaccination and COVID-19. 334 patients and patient's relatives aged 18 to 65 years who were followed up at the Infectious Diseases Clinic between March and July 2022 for reasons other than COVID-19 disease were included in the study. The COVID-19 vaccination status of each participant was queried and the preferred vaccination was recorded on the case form. The mean age was 40.9 years, and 52.4% (n:175) of participants were women. It was found that 82.3% (n:275) of participants had received at least one dose of the vaccine COVID-19. It was found that 17.6% of participants had not been COVID-19 vaccinated. It was found that 60.7% (n:203) of participants received ≥ 2 doses of the mRNA-based viral vaccine. Vaccination rates were found to be significantly lower in patients with 'inadequate' HL (p = .047). In addition, the vaccination rate was lower in people aged 39 years and younger and in the presence of one or more chronic diseases. When chronic diseases are present, COVID-19 becomes more severe. On the other hand, the disease shows a moderate clinical picture and plays a significant role in transmission to risk groups in the young population, where vaccination rates are low. This situation in the context of COVID-19 demonstrates once again the importance of informing at-risk groups and the healthy young population about vaccine-preventable diseases.

Multidrug resistance in pathogens of community-acquired urinary tract infections in Turkey: a multicentre prospective observational study

BACKGROUND: To have country-wide information about multidrug resistance (MDR) in isolates from community-acquired urinary tract infections (CAUTI) of Turkey, in terms of resistance rates and useful options. METHODS: We used a geocode standard, nomenclature of territorial units for statistics (NUTS), and a total of 1588 community-acquired isolates of 20 centres from 12 different NUTS regions between March 2019 and March 2020 were analysed. RESULTS: Of the 1588 culture growths, 1269 (79. 9%) were Escherichia coli and 152 (9.6%) were Klebsiella spp. Male sex, advancedage, and having two or more risk factors showed a statistically significant relation with MDR existence (p < 0.001, p: 0.014, p < 0.001, respectively) that increasing number of risk factors or degree of advancing in age directly affects the number of antibiotic groups detected to have resistance by pathogens. In total, MDR isolates corresponded to 36.1% of our CAUTI samples; MDR existence was 35.7% in E. coli isolates and 57.2% in Klebsiella spp. isolates. Our results did not show an association between resistance or MDR occurrence rates and NUTS regions. DISCUSSION: The necessity of urine culture in outpatient clinics should be taken into consideration, at least after evaluating risk factorsfor antibacterial resistance individually. Community-acquired UTIs should be followed up time- and region-dependently. Antibiotic stewardship programmes should be more widely and effectively administrated.

Tetanus immunization among healthcare professionals: cross-sectional study in Turkey.

INTRODUCTION: Vaccine-preventable diseases can be effectively managed through timely vaccine booster doses. In this study, the tetanus vaccination status of healthcare professionals and their level of knowledge about tetanus vaccination were investigated. METHODOLOGY: The data were obtained through a survey questionnaire from 336 healthcare professionals. The survey participants were recruited on a voluntary basis among the personnel working in a tertiary hospital between 1 July 2021 and 30 September 2021. The participants were asked about their tetanus vaccination status and general awareness about the tetanus vaccine. RESULTS: The survey participants included nurses (41.4%, n = 139), doctors (39.9%, n = 134) and support unit personnel (18.8%, n = 63). The support unit personnel had insufficient knowledge about military service period, pregnancy period, vaccination of women aged 15-49 years, and the necessity of booster tetanus vaccine every 10 years. Interestingly, the nurses had significantly inadequate knowledge of geriatric tetanus vaccination. CONCLUSIONS: Although the tetanus immunization program is widely implemented throughout the country, our study concluded that it is necessary to educate healthcare professionals on the importance of the tetanus vaccine.

Peripheral and central smell regions in COVID-19 positive patients: an MRI evaluation.

BACKGROUND: Coronaviruses may lead to invasion of the central nervous system. PURPOSE: To investigate the effects of COVID-19 infection on smell using cranial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). MATERIAL AND METHODS: Cranial MRI scans of 23 patients with COVID-19 (patient group [PG]) and 23 healthy controls (HCs) were evaluated. Peripheric (olfactory bulb [OB] volume and olfactory sulcus [OS] depth) and central (insular gyrus and corpus amygdala areas) smell regions were measured. RESULTS: Smell loss was present in nine patients (39.1%) in the PG. The means of the disease duration and antiviral treatment were 3.00 ± 2.35 and 5.65 ± 1.72 days, respectively. OB volumes of the PG were significantly lower than those of the HCs bilaterally. However, no significant differences were observed between the OS depth, insular gyrus, and corpus amygdala areas of both groups. The left corpus amygdala areas were both increased with the increased disease (P = 0.035, r = 0.442) and treatment durations (P = 0.037, r = 0.438). In the PG, longer treatment duration, increase in C-reactive protein (CRP), lymphocyte count decrease, and positive thoracic computed tomography (CT) involvement were related to OS depth decrease. Right corpus amygdala areas increased in patients with COVID-19 with increased D-dimer values, and thoracic CT involvement was detected. CONCLUSION: COVID-19 disease affects the peripheric smell region of OBs and does not affect the central smell regions of the insular gyrus and corpus amygdala areas. The importance of our study is to detect MRI findings in patients with COVID-19 leading to odor disorders. These findings may help in diagnosing the disease at an early stage.

Complicated brucellar spondylodiscitis: experience from an endemic area.

The demographical, clinical, and therapeutical features of patients with brucellar spondylodiscitis (BS) were evaluated in this study. Of the 96 patients with brucellosis, 20 (20.8%) were diagnosed with spondylodiscitis. Patients who had BS were more likely to be older (p = 0.001), have higher erythrocyte sedimentation rates (p = 0.01), and more likely to be anemic (p = 0.017). Lumbar segment (18/20) was frequently involved region. BS was complicated with paravertebral or epidural abscess in seven, radiculitis in six, and psoas abscess in five of cases. Antibiotic regimens including two or three antibiotics with combination of doxycycline, rifampin, and streptomycin were used. In this series, the mean duration of antimicrobial therapy was 18 weeks (range 12-56 weeks). Attention is drawn to this disease given the need for prolonged duration of treatment especially in complicated cases in order to avoid possible sequelae.