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Objective: In India, increasing prevalence of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR) has aggravated the control oftuberculosis problem. In many urban and semi-urban regions of India, no surveillance data of multidrug resistance inMycobacterium tuberculosisis available.Methods: A surveillance study on multidrug resistance was carried out in semi-urban and rural regions in and aroundNashik City of Maharashtra, India. The surveillance study was conducted in this region found that the prevalence ofcombined resistance to first and second-line anti-tuberculosis drugs is remarkably high. The isolates of M. tuberculosiswas identified and subjected to drug susceptibility testing. The patterns of drug susceptibility of isolates of M. tuberculosisduring the periods 2000 and 2004 were compared with drug susceptibility patterns of the organisms during theperiod 2008 to 2011.Results: The 260 isolates identified as M. tuberculosis show mean drug resistance prevalence of 45.6% for more than anytwo drugs and the MDR rate as 37% in the years 2000 to 2004 whereas 305 isolates of the organism show mean drugresistance prevalence of 30.2% and the MDR rate as 25% in the years 2008 to 2011.Conclusion: The researcher found that, though the prevalence of multidrug resistance to the drugs tested is remarkablyhigh, it has come down noticeably during the past seven years due to efforts of State Government and strict implementationof treatment guidelines of WHO by the physicians. J Microbiol Infect Dis 2013; 3(1): 12-17Key words: MDR-TB, XDR-TB, DOTS, drug-resistance prevalence rate

Hepatitis B virus (HBV), a DNA virus, is responsible for the acute and chronic hepatitis and lever carcinoma. Worldwide, there are 300 to 350 million people are chronically infected with the virus and 6 lac death occur due to chronic hepatitis and HBV associated liver cirrhosis and lever carcinoma. HBV show variable nucleotide diversity in its genome on the basis of which the virus is classied into ten genotypes (A-J). The HBV infection is mainly spread parenterally, and through intimate contacts. HBV infection is manifested as different diseases such as acute hepatitis, chronic hepatitis, acute or spontaneous exacerbation of chronic hepatitis, fulminant hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma and hepatic decompensation. The HBV genome is a relaxed circular, partially double stranded DNAof approximately 3,200 base pairs. There are four partially overlapping open reading frames encoding the envelope (pre-S/S), core (pre-core /core), polymerase, and X proteins. The pre-S/S open reading frame encodes the large, middle, and small surface glycoproteins. Pre-core / core open reading frame is translated into pre-core polypeptide which is modied in to a soluble protein, the hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg), and the nucleocapsid core protein hepatitis B core antigen (HBcAg).

Introduction: Microbiota of respiratory tract may be responsible for acute exacerbation of bronchial asthma and chronic bronchitis. So the present study was carried out to find out specific bacterial etiological agents' involvement in acute exacerbation of these diseases. Materials and Methods: Sputum samples from patients of bronchial asthma, chronic bronchitis during acute exacerbation and endotracheal aspirates from control cases were processed to isolate the microbiota of respiratory tract using quantitative methods after liquefying and diluting the samples. Significant and insignificant bacterial counts from the samples were determined. Grading of pus cells and bacterial morphology was seen by Gram's staining. Results: Pus cell grading of 1+ to 3+ were seen in the both cases of bronchial asthma and chronic bronchitis whereas pus cells were not found in control cases. Percentage of microorganisms by Gram's staining in asthmatics, chronic bronchitis, and controls cases were 93.33%, 86.67%, 76.67% respectively. Among the pathogenic bacteria, percentage of significant count of Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumonia were found to be high in chronic bronchitis cases when compared these pathogens in asthmatics. In bronchial asthma cases, the percentage of significant count of Streptococcus pyogenes, Proteus mirablis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were high as compared to chronic bronchitis cases. In chronic bronchitis patients and asthmatics, significant count of non-pathogens were 16.67% and 13.33% respectively. Conclusion:The quantitative cultures showing significant numbers as 10 4 /ml and 10 7 /ml of pathogenic and nonpathogenic bacteria respectively are found to be associated with acute exacerbation of bronchial asthma and chronic bronchitis.

Introduction: Infections caused by Gram negative bacteria is major health threat to patients in intensive care units and to patients with some comorbidity. Constant surveillance of drug-resistance among the different bacterial pathogens is important in prevention and management of infections caused by these pathogens. Such type of study also help clinicians to prescribe correct drug regimen to the patients suffering from these infections which may be primary, secondary or nosocomial, reducing the morbidity, mortality and hospitalization period. The present study is undertaken to study the drug susceptibility pattern and its incidence among the different bacterial pathogens isolated from different clinical samples obtained at Tertiary Care Hospital. Materials and Methods: The samples received from different clinical units were subjected to bacteriological investigations using standard microbiological procedures. The isolated pure cultures of bacterial pathogens were subjected to antibiotic susceptibility testing as per the CLSI guidelines of 2016. The data of antibiotic susceptibility of each isolated pathogens were tabulated and prevalence of each drug resistance and multidrug resistance were determined to study the trends of drug resistance among these pathogens. Results: The incidence of infections caused by Gram negative bacteria was found to be 74.67% among all the isolates and that of Gram positive bacterial infections was found to be 25.33% respectively. Esch.coli (37.32%) was the most frequently isolated Gram negative bacterium followed by Ps. aeruginosa, Klebsiella spp., Acinetobacter spp. and Proteus spp.in the descending order among all the isolates of Gram positive and Gram negative isolates. Conclusion: The incidence of infections caused by Gram negative bacteria was higher than those caused by Gram positive bacteria. Esch.coli was the most common pathogen among the Gram negative bacterial isolates whereas Staph.aureus was the most common pathogen among all the Gram positive bacterial isolates. All the bacterial isolates showed 100% multi-drug resistance and the incidence of drug resistance to second generation penicillin and cephalosporins were found to be remarkably higher among all the bacterial isolates.