Genetic characterization of a Neisseria meningitidis cluster in Queensland, Australia.

Neisseria meningitidis serogroups B and C have been responsible for the majority of invasive meningococcal disease in Australia, with serogroup B strains causing an increasing proportion of cases in recent years. Serogroup Y has typically caused sporadic disease in Australia. In 2002, a cluster of 4 cases was reported from a rural region in Queensland. Three of these cases were serogroup C, with 1 case diagnosed by molecular detection only, and the fourth case was identified as a serogroup Y infection. Genomic analysis, including antigen finetyping, multilocus sequence typing (MLST), and core genome MLST, demonstrated that the serogroup Y case, though spatially and temporally linked to a serogroup C disease cluster, was not the product of a capsule switch and that one of the serogroup C isolates had a deletion of the entire porA sequence.

Epidemiological and Clinical Comparative Study for COVID-19 Patients in Babylon Province, Iraq.

A respiratory illness outbreak caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) began in China and spread to other nations. Typically, the real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction of nasopharyngeal swabs has been utilized to confirm the clinical diagnosis. However, it is uncertain if the virus is found in specimens from other places, and therefore, possibly transmitted in methods other than respiratory droplets. Patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) were identified based on symptoms, and SARS-CoV-2 detection confirmed the diagnosis. Pharyngeal swabs were obtained from August to September 2020. Individuals with obtained samples based on clinical indications from hospitals in Marjan City and a public health laboratory in Babylon Province, Iraq, were included in this retrospective study. The findings of the clinical symptoms and their intensity were provided in the chart, which revealed that all indications were equal in both male and female patients, with no obvious differences, especially given that all patients' ages ranged from 30 to 70 years. High temperature, sore throat, and shortness of breath were shown to be the most common symptoms, in comparison to other symptoms in the chart.