Virulence factors, serogroups, and antibiotic resistance of Shiga-toxin producing Escherichia coli from raw beef, chicken meat, and vegetables in Southwest Iran.

BACKGROUND: Shiga-toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is an important food-borne pathogen causing human diseases with severe symptoms. Although the O157 serotype has been mostly isolated from human specimens, the increasing incidence rates of non-O157 serogroups have attracted special attention in recent years. AIMS: Evaluation of the epidemiology and identification of different characteristics of STEC isolates from raw beef, chicken meat, and vegetable samples in Shiraz, Southwest Iran. METHODS: Two hundred beef and chicken meat samples from different parts of carcasses and four hundred vegetable samples (carrots, lettuce, cucumber, and leafy greens) were randomly taken; STEC were isolated and confirmed using standard microbiological methods. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) was performed using the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used for the identification of O-serogroups, virulence, and antibiotic resistance genes. RESULTS: 52% of beef, 8% of chicken, and 7.2% of vegetable samples were STEC-positive. Further, the highest frequency of virulence factors belonged to the co-existence of stx1 and stx2. O157 serogroup was only detected in beef (3.8%) and lettuce (16.6%) isolates, while the rates of the non-O157 serogroups were relatively high (up to 44.2%). The highest resistance rate in the STEC isolates of different samples belonged to nalidixic acid (62.5%), tetracycline (55.7%), and ampicillin (48%). CONCLUSION: Paying more attention to non-O157 serogroups in future studies is recommended due to the relatively high prevalence of theses STEC serogroups in our study. Besides, the high level of resistance to some antibiotics observed in this study needs to be addressed.

Characterization and antibiotic resistance pattern of diffusely adherent Escherichia coli (DAEC), isolated from paediatric diarrhoea in Shiraz, southern Iran.

Diarrhoea is a major health concern, especially in developing countries. Research has implicated diffusely adherent Escherichia coli (DAEC) strains as a cause of diarrhoea. In this study, we investigated the prevalence, adherence assay, virulence gene profiles and antimicrobial resistance of DAEC at a hospital in southern Iran. In this cross-sectional study, 309 infants and children under the age of 13 years with diarrhoea who had been referred to Shahid Dastgheib Hospital, Shiraz between October 2018 and May 2019 were recruited. Microbiological methods, PCR, HEp-2 adherence assay and antimicrobial susceptibility test were used. Of the 309 stool samples, 207 (66.9%) were found to contain E. coli by biochemical tests and culture. Molecular analysis of Afa/Dr and AIDA-I adhesin-encoding genes showed that 14 (6.7%) out of 207 E. coli isolates were DAEC. All DAEC isolates in HEp-2 cells showed a diffusely adherent pattern. The virulence genes sat, pet, sigA, pic, astA and fimH were found in 50%, 0%, 14.2%, 14.2%, 21.4% and 100% of DAEC isolates, respectively. The most effective antibiotic against the DAEC isolates was imipenem (92.8%) and the least effective was ampicillin (0%). Our findings expand the knowledge on DAEC prevalence and its characteristics in Iran. It also explains the role of virulence genes in DAEC pathogenesis. The results showed that although the prevalence of DAEC is low, these strains exhibit a high rate of antimicrobial resistance as well as high frequency for carrying virulence genes.

Fluticasone nasal spray as an adjunct to Amoxicillin for acute sinusitis in children: a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Approximately 0.5-2% of upper respiratory tract infections in adults and 6-13% of viral upper respiratory tract infections in children are complicated by acute sinusitis. This study was aimed to evaluate the coadministration effect of fluticasone nasal spray (FNS) with amoxicillin for AS in children. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred children 2 to 14 years of age with acute sinusitis referred to Shahid Mohammadi Pediatric Hospital in Bandar Abbas were randomly allocated into two equal intervention and control groups to receive amoxicillin with fluticasone nasal spray one puff twice daily for 14 days and amoxicillin 80 to 100 mg/kg/ day for 14 days respectively. RESULTS: Twenty one (42%) of children in intervention group were cured completely and 2 (4%) children in control group had complete recovery (p < 0.001). Symptom severity score was 22.98 ± 2.95 before treatment that reduced to 13.26 ± 3.20 after treatment (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Use of fluticasone can reduce the severity of symptoms of sinusitis in children.

The effect of assertiveness training on student's academic anxiety.

INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE: Academic anxiety is an important educational problem that affects millions of students in colleges and schools over the world each year. Although a low level of anxiety can cause positive motivation for improvement of educational functioning, high levels of it can cause a disturbance in concentration, attention, storage of knowledge, recall and educational reduction. It has also been recently determined that there is a relationship between anxiety and assertiveness. Therefore, this study is an attempt to determine the effect of assertiveness training on reducing anxiety levels in pre-college academic students in Gonabad city in 2008. METHODS: In this clinical trial study, all the pre-college students of Gonabad city were invited to participate and 89 students were divided into experimental and control groups. There were 3 questionnaires, namely demographic, academic anxiety and assertiveness Rathus questionnaires in which the validity and reliability were calculated and approved. The intervention for the experimental group was 5 sessions of assertiveness training using the PRECEDE model and 1 session for parents and teachers to help and support the intervention program. We had a post-test 8 weeks after the last training session for each group was conducted. The data was analyzed by SPSS. RESULTS: The results showed that anxiety levels and decisiveness in the target group were moderate to high and it is seen as a significant reverse relationship between these two factors (r = -0.69 and p < 0.001). The results also showed that there was a significant anxiety decrease in the experimental group after the intervention. On the one hand, there was a significant increase in decisiveness for both groups, but there was not a significant difference between academic anxiety and assertiveness in the control group.before and after the intervention. CONCLUSION: Due to a significant decrease in anxiety and increased decisiveness in the experimental group, it can be claimed that assertiveness training is an effective non-pharmacological method for reducing academic anxiety and it can improve academic performance.