To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study defining the US findings of patients with tularemia and its association with treatment success. Ciprofloxacin is an effective and convenient choice in epidemics of tularemia and early treatment is still the cornerstone of successful therapies.

The demographical, clinical, and therapeutical features of patients with brucellar spondylodiscitis (BS) were evaluated in this study. Of the 96 patients with brucellosis, 20 (20.8%) were diagnosed with spondylodiscitis. Patients who had BS were more likely to be older (p = 0.001), have higher erythrocyte sedimentation rates (p = 0.01), and more likely to be anemic (p = 0.017). Lumbar segment (18/20) was frequently involved region. BS was complicated with paravertebral or epidural abscess in seven, radiculitis in six, and psoas abscess in five of cases. Antibiotic regimens including two or three antibiotics with combination of doxycycline, rifampin, and streptomycin were used. In this series, the mean duration of antimicrobial therapy was 18 weeks (range 12-56 weeks). Attention is drawn to this disease given the need for prolonged duration of treatment especially in complicated cases in order to avoid possible sequelae.

We investigated a gastroenteritis outbreak in Erzurum city, Turkey in December 2012 to identify its cause and mode of transmission. We defined a probable case as onset of diarrhoea (⩾3 episodes/day) or vomiting, plus fever or nausea or abdominal pain during 19-27 December, 2012 in an Erzurum city resident. In a case-control study we compared exposures of 95 randomly selected probable cases and 95 neighbourhood-matched controls. We conducted bacterial culture and real-time multiplex PCR for identification of pathogens. During the week before illness onset, 72% of cases and 15% of controls only drank water from antique neighbourhood fountains; conversely, 16% of cases and 65% of controls only drank bottled or tap water (adjusted odds ratio 20, 95% confidence interval 4·6-84, after controlling for age and sex using conditional logistic regression). Of eight stool specimens collected, two were positive for Shigella sonnei, one for astrovirus, one for astrovirus and norovirus, and one for astrovirus and rotavirus. Water samples from the fountains had elevated total coliform (38-300/100 ml) and Escherichia coli (22-198/100 ml) counts. In conclusion, drinking contaminated fountain water caused this multi-pathogen outbreak. Residents should stop drinking water from these fountains, and clean water from the water treatment plant should be connected to the fountains.

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Objective: Ticks which live in tropical and subtropical climates, are ectoparasites and have to suck blood throughout their development period. They are among the most important vectors of disease affecting the world on humans and animals. Ticks are ectoparasites which have the ability to retain human and animal populations, and thus contaminate may viral, bacterial, protoan and helmint infections in Turkey as in all the world. In our study, the ticks collected from people who applied to our lab due to tick retaining from Ankara and its districts are examined in order to evaluate the situation in terms of spreading today's situation to compare with the past studies. With the data obtained in this context it is aimed to take steps for defining the relationship between the tick-hostpathogen interactions, to determine the connection with ecological criteria, to check and get the correct protection measures for diseases they can carry by specified age group and region showing high affinity. Methods: Our study was conducted between May 2015 and April 2018 by evaluating the ticks from the patients who applied to the hospitals of Govermental and University Hospitals. These ticks are then