Background: With the emergence of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), health care preparedness has received increasing attention, which requires valid tools to assess the knowledge and attitude of health workers, such as nurses, with regard to this disease. Aims: This study aimed to develop and evaluate a knowledge and attitudes questionnaire on MERS coronavirus for Iranian nurses. Methods: A questionnaire was developed based on international and national guidelines and a literature review. Ten nurses were recruited to assess face validity and 11 experts reviewed the instrument to determine the content validity ratio and index. Exploratory factor analysis was then done with a random sample of 155 nurses in Tabriz city, Islamic Republic of Iran. Results: Following determination of face and content validity, 78 items (61 knowledge and 17 attitude) were retained in the final version of the questionnaire. The knowledge scale had an average content validity index of 0.80 and the attitude scale a value of 0.91. In the exploratory factor analysis, five dimensions with eigenvalues > 1 and loading level ≥ 0.4 were extracted for the knowledge scale (46 items) and two for the attitude scale (16 items). The Kuder-Richardson 21 coefficient and intraclass correlation coefficient for the knowledge scale were 0.94 and 0.91 respectively. In the attitude scale, the Cronbach alpha coefficient and intraclass correlation coefficients were 0.82 and 0.89 respectively. Conclusions: The scale developed in this study is reliable and stable and a suitable instrument for evaluating the knowledge and attitude of nurses about MERS-CoV.

Background: Air contamination with fungal spores and the presence of these spores on respiratory tract, especially in industrialized cities with contaminated air, can play an important role on the occurrence of respiratory and coetaneous mycoses, asthma and allergic reactions. This survey was carried out to determine the prevalence of different fungal spores in the atmosphere of Tabriz district. Objectives: The present study aimed to detect fungal air spores in Tabriz environments, and to compare the environmental samples of Aspergillus fumigatus with the clinical isolated samples of this fungus, due to the importance of the dangers of A. fumigatus for public health, particularly for the immunocompromised patients. Materials and Methods: During this survey, the presence of air fungal spores was analyzed using settle plate and prepared culture in Sabouraud's dextrose agar. Prior identifications were performed using macroscopic characters, and direct microscopy. 262 samples were collected from different areas of the atmosphere of Tabriz district within all four seasons of the year. Fungal colonies were isolated from all air samples and identified using macroscopic and microscopic characters, and slid culture. Results: The main isolated fungal spores from the atmosphere of Tabriz district were Penicillium Sp. (36.6%), Cladosporidium Sp. (26.8%) and Aspergillus Sp. (23.6%). Conclusions: The presence of fungal spores in the atmosphere as a part of air pollution can cause significant problems for human health, particularly in the respiratory tracts.