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Background: Group B streptococcus (GBS) is the major cause of serious life threatening infections in neonates, pregnant women, and other adults with underlying diseases. Capsular polysaccharide typing is a significant way for epidemiological studies of GBS, the pathogenesis, and other studies associated with GBS infections including surveillance programs and vaccine development in future. Molecular serotyping (MS) methods offer more accurate and reliable typing of bacteria. The aim of current study was to differentiate genotypes of clinical GBS isolates based on PCR assay to acquire information about the distribution of GBS types in Hamadan, Iran.
Materials and Methods: A total of 62 clinical GBS strains including vaginal swabs, urine cultures, and blood culture isolates were examined for genotyping using multiplex PCR assay.
Results:Among the 62 GBS isolates examined, all capsular types, except VI, VII, and VIII, were found. Type III was the predominant type with 35 isolates (56.5%), followed by Type V with 11 isolates (17.7%), Type II with 7 isolates (11.3%), Type Ia with 5 isolates (8.1%), and Types Ib and IV with similar prevalence of 2 isolates (3.2%) for each type.
Conclusion: The results of the current study demonstrated that Type III is the predominant type in Hamadan, followed by Types V, II, Ia, Ib, and IV, respectively. Using MS method leads to accurate, sensitive, specific, and fast typing of GBS isolates. The advantages of MS method allow it to analyze various populations and to examine invasive and colonizing isolates in extensive epidemiological studies and surveillance activities. In fact, MS will facilitate the proper formulation of candidate GBS vaccines.

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Background: Enterobious vermicularis (E. vermicularis) is one the most common parasitic infection among children.
Objectives: The present study aimed to determine the prevalence rate of enterobiasis among preschool children in Mazandaran province, northern Iran.
Materials and Methods: In this cross–sectional study, 653 preschool children were recruited via the cluster sampling method during April 2013 to Feb 2014. A questionnaire was administrated to parents by an interviewer and determined children’s socio-demographic characteristics, personal hygiene, and healthy behaviors. The Graham technique was applied for diagnosis. Data were analyzed using logistic regression model and chi-square test.
Results: In a total of 653 examined subjects, the prevalence rate of E. vermicularis was 19.4%, among which 40.9% were male, and 59.1% were female.  The highest and lowest prevalence rates of E. vermicularis were found in Neka (61.4%) and Tonekabon (1.6%) districts, respectively. A significant association was found between infection and residency, parental occupations, parental education, number of family members, changing underwear, sterilization of linen clothing, taking daily bath, boiling or ironing clothes.
Conclusions: The high prevalence rate of E. vermicularis infection in this study proves the stability status of enterobiasis in this area, posing a risk for children there. Systematic control of infection in children is proposed.

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 Aims: Hospitalized patients are often immunocompromised as a result of invasive medical examinations and treatments. Of course, the tendency to do care practices for these patients and the hospital environment may facilitate the transmission of pathogenic microorganisms among them.
Materials & Methods: The study population and health status of volunteer patients were collected using a pretested questionnaire and patients information available in hospital files. A total of 102 samples were collected from patients’ wounds, noses, ears, and urine and microbiologically analyzed for the presence of Staphylococcus aureus species by plating on Manittol Salt agar. Colonies were purified by streaking on Nutrient agar, Gram stained, and tested for the presence of coagulase and the capability of growing on 3–5% salt concentration.
Findings: Male patients (51.3%) were more infected by S. aureus strains than female patients (48.7%). In terms of age, S. aureus infection rate was higher in patients within the age ranges from 17-50 years (56.32%) and lesser in patients within the age ranges from 51-100 years (43.68%). Genogram of the isolates indicated two major groups based on the genotypic responses to the antibiotics and extracts (This means the possible separation of the isolates into family groups according to their responses to antimicrobial agents). The prevalence of S. aureus colonization was higher in male patients.
Conclusions: Observed indices suggest that sex could be considered as a risk factor for S. aureus infection in patients. In addition to antibiotics, plants extracts could be used as an effective alternative for the treatment of S. aureus infections to control resistant S. aureus species.

 

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Aims: The present study aimed to determine the prevalence of nosocomial infections and their bacterial agents in patients admitted to Poursina Medical and Educational Center of Rasht.
Materials & Methods: The present retrospective descriptive study was conducted by referring to the Infection Control Unit of Poursina hospital and investigating the records of patients with culture-positive nosocomial infections from April 2013 until the end of September 2015. Bacterial agents were diagnosed based on the standard microbiological tests.
Results: During the research period, urinary tract and blood infections were reported as the highest and lowest nosocomial infections, respectively. The most common strains causing nosocomial infections were Acinetobacter spp. (24.7%) (as the most common strain causing respiratory infection), Escherichia coli (22.9%) (as the most common strain causing urinary tract infection), and Enterobacter spp. (19.9%) (as the most common strain causing postoperative infection). Based on the frequency distribution of bacterial strains in hospital wards, Acinetobacter spp was reported as the most common strain isolated from patients in the intensive care unit.
Conclusion: According to the present study results, Acinetobacter spp was the most common strain isolated, and UTIs were the most common type of infection. Due to the prevalence of UTIs and the financial, physical, and social damage they impose to the whole country and the constant change of common pathogens and their susceptibility and antibiotic resistance patterns, it is necessary to conduct studies on this issue in the academic centers of each province at regular intervals.
 

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Background: Brucellosis is an important zoonotic disease with significant economic and public health consequences. This study aimed to investigate the seroepidemiological prevalence of human brucellosis in Gorgan and Dasht, Northeastern Iran during one year.
Materials & Methods: In this study, 153 brucellosis-suspected cases who were referred to the health centers of Gorgan and surrounding villages from April 2017 to March 2018, were included. Two serological assays (Wright and 2-mercaptoethanol) were performed on all sera taken from patients. Data were analyzed by SPSS software (version 23) using Chi-square test and independent t-test. A p-value less than .05 was considered as statistically significant.
Findings: Of 153 suspected cases, 62 cases (40.5%) were positive for brucellosis, among whom 39 cases (62.9%) were men, and 41 cases (66%) were 17-38 years old. The highest prevalence rate of brucellosis was observed in rural men (69.5%) as well as in those consuming raw cheese (35.5%) and being in direct contact with livestock (27.5%). Furthermore, the frequency of the disease was significantly higher in the summer. The incidence rate of the disease was significantly associated with season, history of contact with livestock, and the type of dairy product consumed (p <.05).
Conclusion: The prevalence of brucellosis is higher in rural areas of Gorgan, particularly among farmers and livestock keepers. Providing training and raising awareness of these individuals as well as developing strategic health plans regarding the consumption of unpasteurized dairy products could help reduce the incidence of brucellosis.

 

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Purpose: The present study was conducted to evaluate the frequency of human hydatidosis in Ilam Province using Dot- ELISA techniques. Materials & Methods: Three thousands sera, collected from different cities of Ilam Province in the west of Iran were examined. The serum dilution of 1:400 was selected as the cut off and the results were confirmed by the ELISA technique. Results: Results indicated that, totally 37 individuals (1.2%) show positive sera. There were significant differences among various age groups of infected individuals. The most percentage of infection was found to be in the 20-30 age group. Among the sera tested, 0.56%, 1.57%, 10.77% were found to be positive in individuals living in cities, villages and migratory tribes respectively. Twenty two individuals of the infected people (1.47%) were female and 15 individuals (1%) were male. Most infected individuals were found to be in Mehran city (3.11%) and less infected individuals were found to be in Ilam city (0.79%). Conclusion: Most of the people living in migratory tribes were sheep keepers and were actually involved in animal production, wich can be regarded as a risk factor for their higher infection rate.

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Backgrounds: SARS-COV-2 infection is not always correlated with protection. Antibody seroprevalence in unvaccinated individuals, which is usually measured by N-specific antibodies, is not necessarily correlated with protection, while antibodies against S protein show a better correlation with protection due to its neutralizing epitopes. In this study, we tried to improve our conception of the hidden perspective of SARS-COV-2 in epidemiological reports and investigate anti-S antibody prevalence among anti-N antibody-positive asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic patients.
Materials & Methods: Blood samples were collected from asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic volunteer participants and symptomatic hospitalized patients with negative PCR results from May 30 to June 17, 2020. Detection of SARS-COV-2 antibodies was done using an ELISA kit targeting N or S protein.
Findings: Totally, 716 samples from volunteer participants and 81 samples from symptomatic hospitalized patients with negative PCR results were evaluated. The test performance-adjusted seroprevalence (95% CI) of SARS-COV-2 antibody was 17.3% (8.8-25.8%) for anti-N IgG in volunteers and 25.5% (12.8-39.7%) for anti-N and anti-S IgM in hospitalized patients. Among anti-N IgG positive infected individuals, 49.2% (21.4 and 78.8%) were anti-S antibody positive.
Conclusion: The results showed that SARS-COV-2 infection sometimes occurs in individuals without symptoms or with mild symptoms, but in more than half of them, the produced antibody is not protective. The findings of hospitalized patients showed that the combination of IgM assay with real-time PCR improved the disease diagnosis by more than 25% in cases with negative molecular test results.

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Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate the frequency of human hydatidosis in Kurdestan province by ELISA technique. Materials and Methods: In this study the sera of 1979 individuals were collected from different area (cities and villages) of Kordestan province. The serum dilution of 1/400 was selected for ELISA test. Results:The results indicated that 1.12% of the individuals from Kordestan province showed positive sera. The results also showed that in Kordestan 0.9 % and 1.42% of the people who live in the cities and villages had positive sera respectively. In this study 1.65% of female and 0.45 % of male were positive. From the obtained result we found maximum number of infected people were in the range of 30-40 years (1.59%). Conclusion: According to the results obtained from this study the highest percent of infection was found in the city of Ivandarre, the reasone for this defference (1.69%) is due to the fact that most of the people who are involved in animal husbendary in the province live in this city.

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Aims: This study aims to examine the epidemiology of bodybuilding injuries among amateur bodybuilders and explore the association between mental aspects, sleep quality, and other potential factors with such injuries.
Method and Materials: We conducted a internet- based survey gathering data from 320 amateur bodybuilders. These data were about personal characteristics, practice routines, Mental Aspect (obsessive passion and exercise motivation), sleep quality, and injuries over the preceding six months. The descriptive analysis and logistic regression were applied to analyze collected data.
Findings: The findings revealed that 170 participants (53.8%) of participants had experienced at least one injury, predominantly affecting the knee and shoulder 61 participants (19%), and the finger/wrist 33 participant (13%). Obsessive passion, sleep quality, and being male were significant risk factors for these injuries. Obsessive passion had an Odds Ratio (OR) of 1.65, sleep quality an OR of 1.07, and male sex an OR of 2.11.
Conclusion: The present study revealed the multifactorial nature of bodybuilding injuries, emphasizing the importance of considering mental aspects and sleep quality in injury prevention and management strategies for bodybuilders.

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Background: Assessment of rubella immunity coverage relies on regular updates. This study aimed to determine the age-specific seropositivity rates among a large cohort of pregnant women approximately 12 years after vaccine introduction in Tunisia, where serosurveys are both old and scarce.
Materials & Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted on pregnant women referring to the Maternity and Neonatology Center of Tunis in 2017. Eligible and consenting participants underwent blood sampling twice with a 15-day interval to detect and measure rubella-specific IgG and IgM antibodies. Demographic and obstetric data were also gathered.
Findings: A total of 800 participants with a mean age of 30.6±5 years (range: 17-48) were enrolled in this study. The overall seropositivity rate was 90.4% (n=723) (95%CI: 88.3-92.4). Also, 77 (9.6%) (95%CI: 7.6-11.7) participants were seronegative, among them 36 cases were in the first trimester of their pregnancy. The WHO minimum rubella immunization threshold of 95% was achieved for the first time in the 12-year-old vaccination program target population (96%) (95%CI: 92-99.8). No significant association was found between seropositivity rates and age, geographic origin, occupation, gestational age at the time of enrollment, parity, and abortion history (p> .05), but a significant association was found with educational levels.
Conclusion: Pregnant women vaccinated at the age of 12 showed a high immunization rate. Next decades would witness the elimination of rubella virus circulation as well as congenital rubella syndrome.
 

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Sclerotinia Stem Rot (SSR), caused by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, is believed as the most important disease of canola (Brassica napus) in Iran. Temporal analysis of the disease epidemics was carried out by evaluating SSR in 80 fields in four locations of: Gorgan, AliAbad, Kalaleh and Gonbad in Golestan Province during 2006 and 2007. Scouting of the fields to record disease incidence (I) and disease severity (S) was started before the end of flowering and continued weekly up to harvest time. Disease Progress Curves (DPCs) were studied using mathematical growth models and their goodness of fit determined based on such statistics as coefficient of determination (R2), standard error of estimates (SEE) and residual plots. Gompertz model with a mean R2 of 94.69% was selected as the most appropriate model for describing SSR progress in field conditions of Golestan Province. Rates of increase (rG) per unit of disease in the canola fields were 0.003 to 0.077 (with an average of 0.03). This is the first temporal study of canola SSR in Iran.

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 In this study, the first symptom appearance of wheat leaf rust disease was monitored in Khuzestan Province every ten days from early December 2014, for three years. Also, the climate changes and their influence on the development of the disease were studied. During 2014-2015, the first symptoms, with the severity of 5 MS (Moderately Susceptible), appeared in the south and west parts in early and mid-March, respectively. In northern areas, the symptoms appeared with 10 MS severity in early May. In 2015-2016, the first symptoms appeared with the severity of 5 MS in February in the southern areas. In the west, symptoms appeared and reached 20 S (susceptible) on March 10. In the north, the disease started in late February with the severity of 10 MS and developed to 30 S. In 2016-2017, the first symptoms appeared around the Karun River with the severity of 5 MS on March 10 and eventually reached 10 MS in late March. In the western areas, the disease started in early March with the severity of 5 MS and then stopped. Symptoms appeared one week later in the north, with the severity of 5 MS, and reached 15 MS until the end of March. Based on the previous studies, the first symptoms of wheat leaf rust usually start from the west. However, now, the regional pattern of the symptom has changed dramatically, and it appears in the south near Karun River and the Sugar Cane Crop Industry. This might be due to implementation of preventive measures and dryness of a big part of Hoveyzeh Marshland.
 

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Following favourable agro-ecological conditions, powdery mildew becomes a destructive disease in wheat worldwide. Efficiency of the most common control methods (fungicide application and plant resistance) for wheat powdery mildew improves by using a better understanding of the effects of highly influential agronomic practices and weather factors on disease development. Disease severity was rated at plot scale according to a manageable number of agro-ecological variables in Kermanshah province, Iran in 2013 to 2017. Disease severity rating was varied by cultivar, disease-assessment date, and sowing time. Kruskal-Wallis one-way ANOVA determined a high area under disease progress curve (AUDPC) based on disease severity rated in 2016. A greater AUDPC was detected for early disease onset than late onset. Later sowings had greater AUDPC values compared to earlier sowings. From Principal Component Analysis (PCA), four principal components accounted for 88% of data variance. From PCA-based regression analysis, earlier powdery mildew onset corresponded with further rainy days and higher wind speed in spring, later sowing and maturity, lower disease resistance, and warmer growing season of commercial wheat cultivars. The present findings recognized proper sowing time as effective as genotypic resistance for sustainable management of wheat powdery mildew and provided valuable information on cultivar, disease, maturation, sowing date, and weather interactions.

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Abstract:
Objective: Despite the availability of effective vaccines and antiviral treatments, influenza remains a significant cause of hospitalizations and mortality globally. This study aimed to evaluate the epidemiological characteristics, clinical manifestations, and outcomes of patients diagnosed with seasonal influenza in two referral centers in northeastern Iran.
Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study analyzed data from 58 patients with a mean age of 45 who tested positive for seasonal influenza via PCR. These patients were hospitalized at Imam Reza and Qaem hospitals between 2009 and 2017. Data were collected using a standardized checklist and analyzed using SPSS software version 23. Non-normally distributed data were assessed using the Mann-Whitney test, while qualitative variables were compared using the Chi-square test, with Fisher's exact test applied when necessary.
Results: Among the 58 influenza-infected patients, 37 (67.2%) survived, 18 (32.7%) died, and 6 (10.9%) were discharged at their own request. Influenza A subtypes identified included H1N1 (15.7%) and H3N2 (23.6%), with 60.5% remaining untyped. Antiviral drug administration did not significantly correlate with hospital mortality. However, initiating antiviral treatment within the first 48 hours did influence mortality outcomes. Patient age, influenza virus type, and subtype showed no significant relationship with hospital mortality.
Conclusion: The study highlights concerning clinical outcomes and hospital mortality rates among patients diagnosed with seasonal influenza. Given the preventable nature of influenza and the challenges in managing these patients, there is an urgent need to enhance physician awareness, particularly among specialists. Emphasizing timely diagnostic and therapeutic interventions is critical, especially during peak influenza seasons.

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The Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) is one of the infectious and contagious ones called 2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease. Its outbreak was first reported on December 31, 2019, in the Chinese city of Wuhan that quickly spread throughout the country within a few weeks and spread to several other countries, including Italy, the United States, and Germany, within a month. This disease was officially reported in Iran on February 19, 2020. It is important to detect and analyze high risk zones and establish regulations according to the data and the analyses of Geographic Information System (GIS) in epidemiological situations. Meanwhile, the GIS, with its location nature, can be effective in preventing the breakdown of Covid-19 by displaying and analyzing the dangerous zones where people infected with the disease. In fact, recognizing regions based on the risk of getting the disease can influence social restriction policies and urban movement rules in order to prepare daily and weekly plans in different urban regions. In this applied and analytical research, high and low risk zones of Tehran have been identified by using the random forest algorithm which is used for both classification and regression. The algorithm builds decision trees on data samples and then predicts data from each of them, and finally chooses the best solution. In this research, 7 effective criteria have been used in the level of risk of regions toward Covid-19 virus, which is: subway paths and bus for rapid transits, hospitals, administrative and commercial complexes, passageways, population densities and urban traffic. After providing the map of high-risk zones of Covid-19, the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve (ROC) has been used for evaluation. The area under the curve (AUC) obtained from ROC shows an accuracy of 98.8%, which means the high accuracy of this algorithm in predicting high and low zones toward getting the Covid-19 disease.