Real-life experience on the effectiveness of conjunctival flap and amniotic membrane graft in the treatment of refractory fungal corneal ulcer.

PURPOSE: To evaluate and compare the results of the conjunctival flap (CF) and cryopreserved amniotic membrane graft (AMG) in the management of fungal corneal ulcers either with complications or non-responsive to medical treatment. STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective observational study. METHODS: Medical records of 30 patients with culture-positive fungal corneal ulcer treated with either CF or AMG (15 eyes in each group) in real world settings were retrieved for analysis. After the surgical procedure, patients were followed up on days 1, 7, 14, 21, 30, 60, 90, 120, and 180 to explore the outcomes of the operations along with complications. RESULTS: Infecting fungi were of genus Fusarium (n = 11), Aspergillus (n = 10), Mucor (n = 4) and Penicillium (n = 10). The most common indication was resistant ulcer with perforation. After the procedure, epithelization was completed in 11(73.33%) patients in the CF, and 13 patients in the (86.67%) AMG group. Visual acuity improvement was significantly better in the latter group (CF: 1 [6.67%] vs. AMG: 7 [46.67%], p = 0.023). Flap failure occurred in 4 patients (26.67%) from the CF and 2 (13.33%) from the AMG group. No significant differences were found between the two groups regarding success rate (p = 0.651), epithelialization time (p = 0.691), healing of corneal ulcer (p = 0.651), and postoperative stability (p = 0.651) of the flaps. CONCLUSIONS: CF and AMG are both effective for the management of refractory fungal corneal ulcers. However, AMG appears to improve visual acuity better than CF.

Knowledge, attitude, practice and perception regarding COVID-19 among students in Bangladesh: Survey in Rajshahi University

BackgroundThe number of infection and death by COVID-19 has been rapidly increasing since December 2019 in all over the world. Until now, there is no specific treatment or vaccine for this disease; WHO suggests only some protective measures like maintaining social distance, staying home, washing hands with soap or sanitizer, wearing mask etc. The objective of this study was to survey knowledge, attitude, practice and perception regarding COVID-19 among students in Rajshahi University, Bangladesh. MethodsWe collected data from 305 students of Rajshahi University for this cross-sectional study using mixed sampling from March 11 to March 19, 2020. Frequency distribution, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used in this study. ResultsOut of 305 participants, 224 (73.4%) and 81 (26.6%) were male and female students respectively. The study revealed that Rajshahi university students had average knowledge on symptoms, protective way and transmission of COVID-19. Female students were more knowledgeable than male. More than one third of the students had negative attitude to avoiding public transport and going out to public places with friends and family. The practice of students practice during our data collection period and in future was not satisfactory. More than one third of students were not keen to stay at home and avoid going to crowded places. The perception towards COVID-19 was not good; they had no idea whether the outbreak would affect their daily routine, study and financial matters, study field work and restrict leisure time of meeting family and relatives. ConclusionsWe found that general knowledge, attitude, practice and perception of the university students regarding COVID-19 were not satisfactory. This indicated that the situation was worse among common people. In Bangladesh, the number of healthcare providers is insufficient. University students can be employed as potential workforce to create awareness among mass people on prevention of COVID-19.

Study of antimicrobial activities of chitinases from a potato prototype cultivated in Bangladesh

Chitinases (designated as SPCs) were isolated from „Shilbilati‟ potatoes, a potato prototype cultivated in Bangladesh by affinity chromatography on a chitin column. SPCs agglutinated rat erythrocytes at the minimum concentration of 7 μg/mL and showed toxicity against brine shrimp nauplii with the LC50 value of 20 μg/mL. The chitinases also agglutinated seven bacterial strains among the twelve as studied. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus subtilis and Salmonella typhi were the most sensitive towards the SPCs and were agglutinated at 1.2, 2.5 and 5.0 μg/mL protein concentrations respectively. Antibacterial tests demonstrated that SPCs showed inhibitory activity against the pathogenic bacteria Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis and Salmonella typhi. Antifungal activity was investigated by the disc diffusion method. Five fungal species (Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger, Fusarium vasinfectum, Aspergillus fumigatus and Aspergillus flavus) and two fungal genus (Penicillium and Mucor sp.) were examined in the assay. SPCs showed antifungal activity against Candida albicans, Fusarium vasinfectum and Penicillium sp.