No abstract

Foodborne illnesses can be the cause of morbidity or mortality. Collective foodborne illnesses (TIAC) are generally benign; their epidemic nature can have a significant impact in terms of public health and socio-economic aspects. The present study intends to establish a database inherent to food poisoning specific to the province of Kenitra during the period 2001-2018. These data will help inform about the current situation and the epidemiological evolution during the summer seasons of the study period. This is a retrospective case study of collective food poisoning. The consulted files include data relating to the number and characteristics of intoxicated persons in the study area, the seriousness of the cases (hospitalization, death), food and germ in question, and the factors that promote such an outbreak. The results show that, between 2001 and 2018, 43 outbreaks of TIAC were notified in the province of Kenitra, involved 367 patients (69 hospitalized and 2 deaths). The gender distribution of our sample shows a female predominance (sex ratio M/F = 0.65) with significant difference (p <0.01) (60.66% F; 39.34% M), and the age groups varied from 5 to + 30 years old of which 71.39% are under 25 years old.

The effect of the acid and the osmotic stress on the heat resistance of Escherichia coli (EC1 and EC2) was studied at 63 degrees C in tryptic soy broth adjusted to various pHs (2.5, 4.5 and 6) and various NaCl concentrations (2, 4 and 8%). In the second study, the effect of pretreatment on thermotolerance of E. coli cells was determined. The heat resistance of both strains was low at pH 2.5, but strain EC1 was more resistant than strain EC2. On the contrary, the heat resistance increased with increasing the pH values. Addition of NaCl (2%) to TSB medium, was involved in the protection of cells against heat inactivation, this protective effect was, however, not observed by increasing the NaCl concentration up to 8%. The combined effect of the pH and NaCl on the thermal resistance of both strains was significantly lower at pH 2.5 and NaCl 8%, the number of viable cells decreased from approximately 10(8) CFU/ml to an undetectable number within 20 min for strain EC1 and 15 min for strain EC2, respectively. This study indicates that heat resistance of strain EC1 was enhanced after acid or thermal adaptation. Heat resistance of strain EC2 was, however, enhanced only after thermal adaptation. For both strains no relationship was found between salt adaptation and the ability to resist thermal stress.

Previous studies showed contradictory findings regarding the relationship between nitrate in drinking well-water and abnormal methemoglobin (MetHb) level (>2%) among children. We studied the effect of water chlorination in this relationship in children aged up to 7. 240 subclinical children participated in this cross-sectional study. Water nitrate was analyzed for each participant, and so was blood MetHb. Analysis of two water nitrate exposure levels (<50 and >50 mg/L as 3 )-other extraneous factors (Breslow-Day-Test for interaction), bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed. Abnormal MetHb levels (up to 7.9%) were associated (p-value = 0.020) with exposure to drinking water nitrate. Only water chlorination was an effect modifier. Among those who do not disinfect water, the prevalence of abnormal MetHb for those with nitrate level >50 mg/L was 4.95 (p-value = 0.001, 95% CI = [1.92 -12.79]) times the prevalence for those with nitrate level <50 mg/L. Whereas, among those who do disinfect water, the prevalence for those with high nitrate levels was only ) times the prevalence of those with low nitrate levels. The biological plausibility of a relationship between waterborne microorganisms, drinking water nitrate, drinking water chlorination, and development of an abnormal MetHb level needs to be further explored.

The present work aims to study the waste management of infectious hazardous waste from two local hospitals in Morocco: Idrissi hospital of Kenitra and Ibn Baja hospital of Taza. This is a descriptive, exploratory, and cross-sectional study conducted in five departments: intensive care, maternity, emergency, dialysis, and medicine running from June to November 2018. The questionnaires were conducted on 160 health workers. It is remarked that, among 160 questionnaires distributed, 127 answers were obtained (response rate of 79.3%). During the six months of the study, 1778 observations were made. At the level of different care units, the results show that the WHAIR sorting was inadequate in 56% of the sections and the use of the color coding system was effective in 80% of the ones. The containers of the sharps collection were available in 80% of the suites and the transportation inside the hospital was done manually in 60% of cases. Approximately, 65.8% of the employees have not received any training and 90% believe that the outreach work is insufficient.