Background. Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is an obligate intracellular protozoan parasite of worldwide distribution. There is limited information about the seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis in the southern area of Saudi Arabia. The current study was carried out to determine the prevalence of T. gondii in pregnant women in Jazan province. Materials and Methods. The study was conducted between January and June 2013 and included 195 pregnant women, data on sociodemographic and predisposing factors were collected from each participant. Venous blood samples were collected following standard operating procedures. Serological analysis for latent toxoplasmosis (levels of IgG) and active toxoplasmosis (IgM) was done using Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). Results. The overall seroprevalence of T. gondii in the study area was 24.1%. The seroprevalence of anti-Toxoplasma IgG was 20% (39 out of 195), whereas IgM seropositivity was 6.2% (12 out of 195). Only 4 pregnant women tested positive for both IgG and IgM. The highest IgG and IgM seroprevalence was among the study participants aged 35 to 39 years (13.5% and 35.1%, resp.). The seropositivity rate of T. gondii-specific antibodies was higher among pregnant women from the urban areas than those from rural communities (7.4% versus 0% and 21% versus 15.4% for IgM and IgG, resp.). Conclusions. The seroprevalence of T. gondii was high in pregnant woman in Jazan. The prevalence of toxoplasmosis increases with increase of age. Awareness health education program in Jazan needs to be maintained and developed to targeted pregnant women.

Objective: Knowledge about the effects of khat chewing on type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) development and glycemic control is very sparse. Emerging data suggest that khat chewing may increase the risk of T2DM occurrence. Therefore, this study aimed to measure the prevalence of khat chewing in Saudi people with T2DM in Jazan, Saudi Arabia and to determine the association of khat chewing with T2DM development and glycemic control in T2DM. Methods: This is an analytical, cross-sectional study that included 472 Saudi participants selected randomly from primary healthcare centers in Jazan, Saudi Arabia. A chi-square test and logistic regression were performed in the statistical analysis. Results: The prevalence of khat chewing in Saudi patients with T2DM in Jazan was 29.3%. After adjusting for covariates, khat chewing was significantly associated with T2DM (odds ratio 3.5), indicating that khat chewers had a more than three times higher risk of developing T2DM than those who do not chew khat. However, there was no association between khat chewing and glycemic control in T2DM. Conclusion: Khat chewing was highly prevalent in Saudi people with T2DM in Jazan, Saudi Arabia. There was an association between khat chewing and the development of T2DM. Establishing the causal association of khat chewing with T2DM development and glycemic control and clarifying the biological role of khat in T2DM are important aims for future studies.

Aim:To assess mother's knowledge and attitude regarding self-expressed milk in Jazan, Saudi Arabia. Methodology: Study Area: An observational and cross sectional study done in Obstetric Department (Well Baby and immunization Clinics) in King Fahd Central Hospital (KFCH), Jazan, Saudi Arabia and in six PHCCs in Jazan (randomly selected) 2 Pregnant women who delivered babies before and post-partum women in Obstetric departments, Obstetric outpatient clinic, mother's in well baby, and immunization clinics in mentioned areas were included in the study. Stratified multistage sampling techniques were used. N = 499 Saudi mothers calculated according to survey system with confidence level % 95. The questionnaire was self-administering questionnaire (in Arabic language). All data processed via Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 19. Shapiro-Wilk test. Kruskal-Wallis test used to see the association between level of knowledge and practice with demographic variables that contains more than 2 variables. Mann-Whitney test and Spearman correlation were used. Results: Total of 499 mothers was participating aged 30±7 years with mean number of kids 2.98 ± 2. Mothers heard about self-expressed breast milks accounts 73.5% and 236 mothers of them were practice it. Both level of knowledge and practice accuracy were inadequate. Around one third of mothers heard about it from social media. More than third of the women practice it because of work related issues. The higher the educational level was the higher knowledge (p<0.001). Age and number of kids, has no statistically significant effect on the knowledge level (P = 0.417, 0.285). Working mothers have higher knowledge level than house wife and students (p<0.001), nurses especially who toke breast feeding teaching have higher knowledge level than physicians then teachers (p<0.001). Mothers who toke their knowledge from breast feeding courses have the highest knowledge level followed by medical stuffs other than physicians followed by social media and internet websites then physicians then mothers and last are friends (p<0.001). Mothers with more accurate practice were more knowledgeable than mothers with less accurate practices (p<0.001). Conclusion: Mothers knowledge and practice regarding self-expressed breast milk needed to be improved in order to give the babies better chance for exclusive breast feeding. Breast feeding courses for mothers give better results in term of accuracy of mother's knowledge and practice of expressed breast milk.