Methicillin resistant staphylococci isolated in clinical samples: a 3-year retrospective study analysis.

AIM: To determine the prevalence and describe the antimicrobial resistance patterns of circulating methicillin-resistant staphylococci (MRS) isolated from clinical specimens during a 3-year period in Yaoundé, Cameroon. MATERIALS & METHODS: From January 2017 to December 2019, 1683 clinical samples were plated onto Mannitol salt agar. Bacterial identification was performed followed by antibiotic susceptibility testing. Data were analyzed using R program. RESULTS: Staphylococci were identified in 90 (5.35%) of the 1683 clinical samples. Among these, 83.33% were MRS with 78.67% being methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The prevalence of MRS infection increased significantly with age. CONCLUSION: The study offers a good baseline for surveillance intervention to contain antimicrobial resistance and highlights the need to strengthen antimicrobial stewardship and infection, prevention and control programs in the country.

Retracted: Family planning services use: A shared responsibility between men and women of reproductive age in Hubei province, China.

OBJECTIVE: Effective use of family planning (FP) services significantly improves sexual and reproductive health of both women and men. Recently, the Chinese government has launched the two-child policy allowing families to have an additional child. This study aimed to explore the population's interest for FP services, unmet needs, and expectations. METHODS: A cross-sectional study using stratified random sampling was conducted in 102 counties of Hubei province and 17 555 randomized individuals from rural, transitional, and urban areas were interviewed through a guided semi-structured questionnaire. RESULTS: The Han ethnicity dominated our population and number of living children per family ranged from zero to six. Although 81% reported FP services and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) as a shared responsibility, the contraceptives used excluding condoms, were mainly intrauterine devices (76%), tubal ligation (16%), and vasectomy (8%). Although 24% of participants had a history of contraceptive failure, effective contraceptive use after failure among men remained lower (6% for tubal ligation and vasectomy) and 74% of naive contraceptive users strongly rejected vasectomy. Demographic factors, awareness of FP services/SRH, discussing and making joint decisions, and gender discrepancies were strongly associated with unmet FP services/SRH needs (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Family planning services use roughly varied with the population's unmet needs and expectations, which should be considered to sustain the strategies.

Recurrent deletions of the X chromosome linked CNV64, CNV67, and CNV69 shows geographic differences across China and no association with idiopathic infertility in men.

A recent study found that three recurrent deletions of X chromosome linked copy number variations (CNVs), CNV64, CNV67 and CNV69 were associated with idiopathic male infertility in Spanish and Italian populations, especially CNV67 resembling the azoospermia factor deletions. That merits further investigations among different populations. This study was conducted to examine the prevalence of the three CNVs deletions and their associations with idiopathic male infertility in Chinese Han population. The present study included a large population of 1550 Chinese Han subjects recruited between 2014 and 2016. In total, 714 infertile participants were diagnosed as idiopathic infertility with different conditions (288 with non-obstructive azoospermia, 210 oligozoospermia and 216 asthenospermia) and 836 fertile participants (vasectomized men). The fertile participants were recruited from the representative areas: the north (Hebei and Shanxi), center (Hubei and Jiangsu), and south (Guangdong) of China. All patients were recruited from Hubei province. A multiplex PCR system was established to screen the deletion of the three CNVs, and deletion was confirmed by general PCR. Similar rates of these deletions were observed in infertile men and fertile participants (Hubei), and among the different conditions of infertility. Moreover, CNV64 and CNV67 map distribution geographically differed across China. The three CNVs in fertile groups of other regions were similar, except for Guangdong. No association between the three CNVs deletions and idiopathic male infertility was observed. CNV67 is rare in central China, albeit large sample size study for confirmation is warranted. It seems that the association between these CNVs deletions and idiopathic male infertility is ethnic dependent. There is still need to screen the CNVs deletions in other ethnicities. We suggested to consider the stratification patterns and geographic differences when prescribing CNVs deletions screening as a test in male infertility.

Sexual Practices, Fertility Intentions, and Awareness to Prevent Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV Among Infected Pregnant Women at the Yaounde Central Hospital.

INTRODUCTION: The sexual and reproductive health of people living with HIV is fundamental for their well-being. Antiretroviral therapy and reproductive technologies have significantly improved quality of life of people living with HIV in developed countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, the epicenter of HIV, the sexual practices and fertility of women infected with HIV have been understudied. AIM: To assess the sexual behavior, fertility intentions, and awareness of preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV in pregnant women with HIV-negative partners in Yaounde Central Hospital (Yaounde, Cameroon). METHODS: A cross-sectional survey using a semistructured, interviewer-administered questionnaire was conducted at the antenatal unit and HIV clinic in 2014. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Ninety-four pregnant women infected with HIV provided consistent information on (i) sociodemographic characteristics, (ii) sexual and fertility patterns, (iii) awareness of preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV, and (iv) their unmet needs. RESULTS: Although sexual desire had significantly changed since their HIV diagnosis, the women were highly sexually active. Approximately 19% of women had more than one sexual partner and 40% had regular unprotected sex during the 12-month period before the interviews (P < .0001). Twenty-nine percent of women preferred intermittent sexual intercourse and inconsistent condom use to delay pregnancy, but the abortion rate remained high. Age, marital status, and education affected women's awareness of mother-to-child transmission (P < .05); and no association existed between the number of living children and future pregnancies (rs = -0.217; P = .036). CONCLUSION: HIV-infected women living with HIV-negative partners in Cameroon expressed high sexual and fertility intentions with several unmet needs, including safer sexual practices and conception. Incorporating and supporting safe sexual educational practices and conception services in maternal care can decrease risky sexual behavior and vertical transmission.

Scale up use of family planning services to prevent maternal transmission of HIV among discordant couples: a cross-sectional study within a resource-limited setting.

BACKGROUND: Integration of family planning services (FPS) into human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) care for HIV-infected women is an important aspect of the global prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) strategy. We assessed the integration of FPS into routine care of HIV-infected mothers by evaluating the uptake and barriers of contraception and PMTCT services. METHODS: We conducted an interventional study using the interrupted time series approach in the health care facilities located in Yaounde, Cameroon. First, structured questionnaires related to family planning use, PMTCT services use, and infection risk of the sexual partner were administered to the first trimester pregnant women who were HIV infected and living with uninfected partners. Second, 2 weeks before the delivery date, the women were interviewed according to the prior counseling interventions received, in order to assess their behavior on FPS, antiretroviral therapy (ART) use, delivery option, and infant nourishment to be adopted. P-values below 0.05 were considered statistically significant in the statistical analyses. RESULTS: Of 94 HIV-infected women, 69% were stable couples. Only 13% of women had attended FPS before conception. Although the vast majority were knowledgeable about modern and traditional contraception methods, only 19% had experienced effective contraceptive methods. However, 66% preferred condom use, 45% having three children still expressed a desire to conceive, while 44% reported abortions, 65% had tried to avoid the current pregnancy, and 12% of women were ART naïve. Several predictors such as education, abortion rate, unplanned pregnancies, and partners' decision were associated with the nonuse of effective contraceptive methods. Moreover, barriers including sex inequity, lack of partner support, ART shortages, and lack of HIV viral load monitoring were prevalent among the participants (P=0.001). However FPS use, ART compliance, and safe options to PMTCT significantly increased after the educational counseling interventions (P=0.001). CONCLUSION: Scaling up the FPS by incorporating routine PMTCT services into reproductive health care should contribute to preventing both horizontal and vertical transmission of HIV.

Differences in Knowledge, Attitude, and Behavior towards HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections between Sexually Active Foreign and Chinese Medical Students.

Although the prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) decreased in the last decade worldwide, the number of deaths due to HIV/AIDS and communicable diseases including syphilis, hepatitis, and tuberculosis had dramatically increased in developing countries. Education and behavior are incredibly important factors to prevent these diseases' spread. This study highlights the range of differences in knowledge, attitude, and behavior of 434 sexually active medical students towards HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Because the surveyed population constitutes the forefront of healthcare providers and was originated from different area of the world, this is the first time a study sought to investigate the behavioral attitude of this group of population irrespective of the three levels of their academic and professional knowledge. Several factors including sociodemographic characteristics, sexual behavior, HIV/AIDS, and STIs related patterns play a key role in medical student attitude and behavior towards people infected with HIV/AIDS and STIs. Our findings add consistent value in prior studies which aimed to stop new infections and also imply further investigations on the management of the studied infections by medical students. The present study arouses much interest among participants and provides evidence of reinforcing medical students' education on HIV/AIDS and STIs.

High risk factors of pancreatic carcinoma.

Over the past decades, cancer has become one of the toughest challenges for health professionals. The epidemiologists are increasingly directing their research efforts on various malignant tumor worldwide. Of note, incidence of cancers is on the rise more quickly in developed countries. Indeed, great endeavors have to be made in the control of the life-threatening disease. As we know it, pancreatic cancer (PC) is a malignant disease with the worst prognosis. While little is known about the etiology of the PC and measures to prevent the condition, so far, a number of risk factors have been identified. Genetic factors, pre-malignant lesions, predisposing diseases and exogenous factors have been found to be linked to PC. Genetic susceptibility was observed in 10% of PC cases, including inherited PC syndromes and familial PC. However, in the remaining 90%, their PC might be caused by genetic factors in combination with environmental factors. Nonetheless, the exact mechanism of the two kinds of factors, endogenous and exogenous, working together to cause PC remains poorly understood. The fact that most pancreatic neoplasms are diagnosed at an incurable stage of the disease highlights the need to identify risk factors and to understand their contribution to carcinogenesis. This article reviews the high risk factors contributing to the development of PC, to provide information for clinicians and epidemiologists.

Comparison of three different techniques of human sperm DNA isolation for methylation assay.

Human sperm DNA is an important genetic and epigenetic material, whose chromatin structure differs from that of somatic cells. As such, conventional methods for DNA extraction of somatic cells may not be suitable for obtaining sperm DNA. In this study, we evaluated and compared three sperm DNA extraction techniques, namely, modified guanidinium thiocyanate method (method A), traditional phenol-chloroform method (method B), and TianGen kit method (method C). Spectrophotometry and agarose gel electrophoresis analyses showed that method A produced DNA with higher quantity and purity than those of methods B and C (P<0.01). PCR results revealed that method A was more reliable in amplifying DEAD-box polypeptide 4 (DDX4) and copy number variations (CNVs) than methods B and C, which generated false-positive errors. The results of sperm DNA methylation assay further indicated that methods A and B were effective, and the former yielded higher quantitative accuracy. In conclusion, the modified guanidinium thiocyanate method provided high quality and reliable results and could be an optimal technique for extracting sperm DNA for methylation assay.