Assessing the knowledge and attitude towards HIV/AIDS among the general population and health care professionals in MENA region.

INTRODUCTION: Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection continue to represent a global health concern influenced by various social, economic, and cultural factors. The MENA are among the top regions in the world with the fastest-growing HIV epidemic. Thus, adequate knowledge and a positive attitude of people toward HIV/AIDS are of utmost importance to prevent the spreading of the disease. Accordingly, this study aims to evaluate the knowledge and attitude of the public and healthcare population toward HIV/AIDs. METHODS: A cross-sectional analysis was conducted among residents within our population from October 2018 until August 2019. An anonymous online questionnaire was used to investigate the population's demographic characteristics, HIV/AIDS-related knowledge, and attitudes toward HIV-infected patients. Participants completed a 40-item questionnaire designed to measure their knowledge and attitude toward HIV/AIDS. The data was collected via surveys, administered through electronic tablets to the participants at public places (n = 5,757) and through an online version of the questionnaire on Google Forms (n = 2500), which was sent through social media platforms. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data using the R-statistical software program. RESULTS: A total of 8,257 participants were included in our analysis. Saudi Arabian citizens represented 79% of the participants, while participants from the MENA countries represented 11.7% and 3% from the other Gulf Cooperation Council countries. Fifty-nine (59%) knew that HIV is a contagious infection, and 13.8% were unaware that HIV could be transmitted sexually. A few healthcare professionals reported negative attitudes toward HIV infected patients. Many risk factors, including age, gender, nationality, and education, significantly affected the knowledge and attitude scores. In this survey, we found that social media is the primary source of participants' information. CONCLUSIONS: Overall correct knowledge score of individuals about HIV/AIDS was relatively low. This study showed that the general population was knowledgeable to a certain degree about HIV/AIDS and its modes of transmission. Nevertheless, they lack a detailed understanding of the disease's nature, modes of transmission, and existing treatment. Policymakers in the region should further eliminate social discrimination and stigma in HIV-infected patients.

Resource Utilization and Caring Cost of People Living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (PLHIV) in Saudi Arabia: A Tertiary Care University Hospital Experience.

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is associated with a significant burden of disease, including medical and non-medical costs. Therefore, it is considered to be a priority for all health authorities. The aim of this study is to determine healthcare and treatment costs of caring for PLHIV at one of the tertiary care university hospitals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This was a micro-costing, retrospective, observational study from a tertiary care university hospital and included all confirmed HIV-infected patients who visited infectious disease clinics in the period from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2018. A total of 42 PLHIV were included in this study. The mean age of the study participants was 38.76 ± 11.47 years with a mean disease duration of 5.27 ± 4.81 years. The majority of patients were male (85.7%) and Saudi (88.1%). More than half of included patients (59.5%) had a CD4 count of more than 500. During the study period, 26 patients (61.9%) were initiated on a single-tablet regimen. Overall, the main cost-driver was antiretroviral medications, which cumulatively represented more than 64% of the total cost. Patients who developed opportunistic infections had a statistically significant (p = 0.033) higher financial impact, both as a total and on a patient level, than those presented without opportunistic infections. On a patient level, the mean and median costs were higher and statistically significant for those with co-morbidities than those without co-morbidities (p = 0.002). The majority of the economic burden of PLHIV is attributable to antiretroviral therapy use. The healthcare costs of PLHIV can vary greatly, depending on the presenting illness, clinical stage, developed opportunistic infection, co-morbidity, and pharmacological therapy.

Aerosolized plus intravenous colistin vs intravenous colistin alone for the treatment of nosocomial pneumonia due to multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria: A retrospective cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the effectiveness and safety of aerosolized (AER) plus intravenous (IV) colistin with IV colistin alone in patients with nosocomial pneumonia (NP) due to multidrug-resistant (MDR) Gram-negative bacteria. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study of adults with NP who received IV colistin alone or in combination with AER colistin. The primary endpoint was clinical cure at end of therapy. Secondary endpoints included microbiological eradication, in-hospital mortality and nephrotoxicity. RESULTS: In total, 135 patients were included in this study: 65 patients received AER plus IV colistin and 70 patients received IV colistin alone. Baseline characteristics were similar between the two groups. Clinical cure was achieved in 42 (65%) patients who received AER plus IV colistin and 26 (37%) patients who received IV colistin alone (P = 0.01). Among a total of 88 patients who were microbiologically evaluable, 27 (42%) patients who received AER plus IV colistin and 12 (17%) patients who received IV colistin alone attained favourable microbiological outcomes (P = 0.022). In-hospital mortality (43% vs 59%, P = 0.072) was higher in patients who received IV colistin alone, but the difference was not significant. Renal injury occurred in 31% of patients who received AER plus IV colistin and in 41% of patients who received IV colistin alone (P = 0.198). CONCLUSION: AER colistin can be considered as salvage therapy as an adjunct to IV administration for the treatment of patients with NP due to MDR Gram-negative pathogens.

Efficacy of clotrimazole for the management of oral candidiasis: A meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials.

PURPOSE: To assess the efficacy and safety of topical application of clotrimazole versus others in the treatment of oropharyngeal candidiasis (OPC). METHOD: Four electronic databases, registries of ongoing trials, and manual search were used to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that compared the efficacy of clotrimazole to other antifungal agents in patients who were clinically diagnosed with oral candidiasis up to November 1st, 2019. Primary outcomes were clinical response and mycological cure rates. Secondary outcomes include relapse rate, incidence of systemic infections, and compliance. Adverse effects were also evaluated. RESULTS: Sixteen RCTs with a total of 1685 patients were included. Half of the eligible studies were considered at high risk of performance bias and more than a third, at high risk of reporting bias. Our analysis showed no significant difference in clinical response between clotrimazole and all other antifungal agents. However, clotrimazole was less effective in terms of mycologic cure and relapse rate. Sensitivity analysis comparing clotrimazole to other topical antifungal agents only showed no differences in clinical response, microbiologic cure or relapse. Further sensitivity analysis showed significant efficacy of fluconazole over clotrimazole. CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis indicated that clotrimazole is less effective than fluconazole but as effective as other topical therapies in treating OPC. Well-designed high-quality RCT is needed to validate these findings.

Clinical characteristics and outcomes of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in a MERS-CoV referral hospital during the peak of the pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the clinical characteristics and outcomes of hospitalized coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients in a middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) referral hospital during the peak months of the pandemic. DESIGN: A single-center case series of hospitalized individuals with confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections in King Saud University Medical City (KSUMC), an academic tertiary care hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Clinical and biochemical markers were documented. Risks for ventilatory support, intensive care unit (ICU) admission and death are presented. RESULTS: Out of 12,688 individuals tested for SARS-CoV-2 by real time reverse transcriptase polymerase reaction (RT-PCR) from June 1 to August 31, 2020, 2,683 (21%) were positive for COVID-19. Of the latter, 605 (22%) patients required hospitalization with a median age of 55, 368 (61%) were male. The most common comorbidities were hypertension (43%) and diabetes (42%). Most patients presented with fever (66%), dyspnea (65%), cough (61%), elevated IL-6 (93.5%), D-dimer (90.1%), CRP (86.1%), and lymphopenia (41.7%). No MERS-CoV co-infection was detected. Overall, 91 patients (15%) died; risk factors associated with mortality were an age of 65 years or older OR 2.29 [95%CI 1.43-3.67], presence of two or more comorbidities OR 3.17 [95%CI 2.00-5.02], symptoms duration of seven days or less OR 3.189 [95%CI (1.64 - 6.19]) lymphopenia OR 3.388 [95%CI 2.10-5.44], high CRP OR 2.85 [95%CI 1.1-7.32], high AST OR 2.95 [95%CI 1.77-4.90], high creatinine OR 3.71 [95%CI 2.30-5.99], and high troponin-I OR 2.84 [95%CI 1.33-6.05]. CONCLUSION: There is a significant increase in severe cases of COVID-19. Mortality was associated with older age, shorter symptom duration, high CRP, low lymphocyte count, and end-organ damage.

The clinical and laboratory manifestations profile of antiphospholipid syndrome among Saudi Arabia population: Examining the applicability of Sapporo criteria.

Antiphospholipid syndrome is a organized autoimmune disease presented with vascular thrombosis and pregnancy morbidity. The Sapporo classification criteria of APS were revised in 2006 and are used as the main diagnosis guideline, which validity as standard measurements is still in debate. This study observe the clinical and laboratory indices of APS among Saudi patients. This is a retrospective study hospital-based population. The clinical and Laboratory manifestations of diagnosed APS patients from electronical medical records identifies by ICD-9 code 795.79 in the King Saud University Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, between 1990 and 2012. We selected patients with ICD-9 code 795.79 as. Sapporo criteria applied to all patients, then divided into cases fulfilled criteria and cases failed the criteria. To notice the difference in clinical and laboratory indices and comorbidities between the two groups, the T-test was performed and Logistic regression for the fulfilled criteria and clinical indices of vascular thrombosis, DVT/PE, recurrent, and pregnancy morbidity. A total of 72 (90%) females and 8 (10%) males, with the female-to-male ratio 9:1. The mean (±SD) age at diagnosis was 28.1 (±8.7) years (range 11-63 years). There were 22 patients (27.5%) attained the revised criteria (APS confirmed) and no significant difference between the two groups was observed (p > 0.2). However, we found Sapporo confirmed APS cases had significantly higher percentage of serological manifestation presence than clinically diagnosed APS cases. Though there is no statistically significance, Sapporo confirmed APS cases had advanced odds of undergoing vascular thrombosis (OR = 1.61, 95%CI) and DVT/PE (OR = 1.53, 95%CI) and lesser odds of undergoing recurrent DVT/PE (OR = 0.67, 95%CI) and pregnancy morbidity (OR = 0.63, 95%CI) than the clinically diagnosed APS cases. Over 70% of the study population with diagnosed APS did not accomplish the revised Sapporo criteria due to negative laboratory manifestations, which reflects heterogeneous but not degreed disease severity profiles.

Clinical Characteristics and Outcome of Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients in a MERS-CoV Endemic Area.

BACKGROUND: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) reported 170,639 cases and 1430 deaths from COVID-19 since the first case emerged in the country on March 2 through June 25, 2020. The objective of this report is to describe the characteristics and outcome observed among 99 hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the largest academic hospital in KSA, and assess co-infection with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV). METHODS: This single-center case series data included select epidemiological, clinical, radiological features and laboratory findings of all confirmed hospitalized cases of COVID-19 in King Saud University Medical City (KSUMC), Riyadh, KSA, from March 22 until May 31, 2020, followed through June 6, 2020. We conducted retrospective analysis of listed data from 99 hospitalized patients and present characteristics and factors associated with severity in percentages and univariate odds ratios. Cases were confirmed using nasopharyngeal or throat swab by real-time Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and MERS-CoV by RT-PCR. RESULTS: The 99 hospitalized COVID-19 patients included in this analysis constitute 16% of 632 positive SARS-CoV-2 among 6633 persons who were tested at the KSUMC (positivity rate, 9.4%). MERS-CoV PCR was negative in all 99 patients tested. The majority of these 99 hospitalized patients were males (66%), had a mean age of 44 years (range, 19-87), and a quarter (25.3%) were health care workers. Patients with comorbid conditions accounted for 52.5% of patients including the 8.1% who were asymptomatic; diabetes mellitus being the most frequent (31.3%), followed by hypertension (22.2%). The most common presenting symptoms were fever (67.7%), cough (60.6%), dyspnea (43.4%), upper respiratory symptoms (27.3%), fatigue (26.3%), diarrhea (19.2%) and loss of smell (9.1%). The clinical conditions among these 99 patients included upper respiratory tract infection (47.5%), abnormal chest X-ray, lymphopenia, high inflammatory markers a fifth (21%) of patients had moderate pneumonia, while 7% had severe pneumonia with 22.2% requiring admission to the intensive care unit and 12.1% died. Late presentation with severe disease, an abnormal chest X-ray, lymphopenia, high inflammatory markers (C-reactive protein, ferritin, and procalcitonin), and end organ damage (high creatinine or high aspartate aminotransferase) were predictors for admission to critical care unit or died. CONCLUSION: We observed no MERS-CoV co-infection in this early cohort of hospitalized COVID-19 patients who were relatively young, more than half had comorbid conditions, presented with fever and/or cough, an abnormal chest X-ray, lymphopenia, and high inflammatory markers. Given MERS-CoV endemicity in the country, co-monitoring of MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 coinfection is critical.

A Unique Presentation of Delirium in a Patient with Otherwise Asymptomatic COVID-19.

OBJECTIVE: Infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), manifests with a wide spectrum of presentations. Most reports of COVID-19 highlight fever and upper respiratory symptoms as the dominant initial presentations, consistent with the World Health Organization guidelines regarding suspected SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, atypical presentations of this disease have been evolving since the initial outbreak of the pandemic in December 2019. We report a case of an older male patient who presented at our hospital with an unusual manifestation of COVID-19. DESIGN: Brief report. SETTING: A university hospital in Saudi Arabia. PARTICIPANT: A 73-year-old man who presented with confusion in the absence of any respiratory symptoms or fever. INTERVENTION: The patient was initially admitted with delirium and underwent a further work-up. MEASUREMENTS: Given his recent history of domestic travel and the declaration of a global COVID-19 pandemic status, the patient was administered a swab test for SARS-CoV-2. RESULTS: The patient's positive test led to a diagnosis of COVID-19. Although he began to experience a spiking fever and mild upper respiratory symptoms, he recovered rapidly with no residual sequela. CONCLUSION: The recognition of atypical presentations of COVID-19 infection, such as delirium, is critical to the timely diagnosis, provision of appropriate care, and avoidance of outbreaks within healthcare facilities during this pandemic. J Am Geriatr Soc 68:1382-1384, 2020.

Genomic analysis of the first KPC-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae isolated from a patient in Riyadh: A new public health concern in Saudi Arabia.

Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC)-producing Enterobacteriaceae have been isolated from human patients in many countries across the globe but rarely in Saudi Arabia. Here we provide the genomic characterization of the first KPC-producing K. pneumoniae isolated from the urine of a patient in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, who had a recent travel history to Egypt involving a medical procedure. Presence of KPC-encoding gene initially detected with the Xpert Carba-R assay was confirmed by traditional PCR. Susceptibility testing using the VITEK 2 system, E-test and microbroth dilution methods showed that the K. pneumoniae isolate, namely SA01_KPC-2, was resistant to all antibiotics except colistin and ceftazidime/avibactam. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS), performed on the Illumina Miseq instrument, identified the isolate as sequence type (ST) 383 and serotype KL30-D1 O1v2. Genome assembly of SA01_KPC-2 indicated the presence of two plasmids. Plasmid pSA01_KPC-2, of approximately 45.9 kb in size, harbored the blaKPC-2 flanked by ISKpn27 and ISKpn6 and had a backbone similar to published KPC-carrying IncX6 plasmids. The second plasmid pSA01_incHIB1, a derivative of published 372-kb plasmid pKpvST383, carried genes encoding virulence factors and resistance to five classes of antibiotics. The isolation of the first KPC producer in Saudi Arabia requires high attention and rapid interventions to prevent further spread.

Carbonic anhydrase II deficiency: report of a novel mutation.

Carbonic anhydrase II (CAII) deficiency is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by renal tubular acidosis, osteopetrosis, recurrent bone fractures, renal stones, growth failure, and mental retardation. Several cases have been reported in Saudi Arabia with homozygous mutations in CA2 consistent with a high degree of consanguinity. We report a case of carbonic anhydrase II deficiency with short stature, mixed renal tubular acidosis, recurrent bone fractures due to trivial trauma, recurrent renal stones and cerebral calcification. This patient was compound heterozygous for a novel CA2 mutation and a previously reported mutation in Arabs.

Disseminated abdominal hydatidosis: a rare presentation of common infectious disease.

Hydatid disease is one of the most geographically widespread zoonoses with substantial disease burden. In this report we are discussing an unusual case of intra-abdominal HD that was ongoing for 22 years despite two surgical interventions. Significant symptomatic relief was achieved within the first two months of combination therapy with albendazole and praziquantel. HD is still of public health concern in the Middle East that needs optimized care.