Human brucellosis is a serious problem in the Republic of Macedonia presenting with a high percentage of localized forms, relapses and therapeutic failures. The risk factor for acquiring the disease had no influence on the outcome.

ObjectivesDespite a 92-99% national vaccination coverage since 2000, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia experienced a large measles outbreak between 2010 and 2011. Here we investigate the characteristics of patients hospitalized during this outbreak at the Clinic of Infectious Diseases in Skopje.MethodsEpidemiological, clinical and laboratory data of 284 measles patients, including 251 from Skopje (43.80% of the 573 reported cases) and 33 from elsewhere in Macedonia were collected.ResultsThe most affected age groups were children up to 4 years of age and adolescents/adults of 15 years and older. Most patients were unvaccinated (n=263, 92.61%) and many had non-Macedonian nationalities (n=156, 54.93%) or belonged to the Roma ethnicity (n=73, 25.70%). Bronchopneumonia and diarrhea were the most common complications. Eighty-two out of 86 tested patients (95.35%) had measles-specific IgM antibodies. The outbreak was caused by the measles variant D4-Hamburg.ConclusionsThe epidemic identified pockets of susceptibles in Skopje and indicated that additional vaccination opportunities in particular for people with non-Macedonian nationality and traveler communities are warranted to ensure efficient measles control in Macedonia. The high attack rate among children of less than 1 year suggests that vaccination before 12 months of age should be considered in high risk settings.

Background: Streptococcus is an important human pathogen which causes a wide variety of diseases. Various virulence factors like adhesins, invasins and toxins are known to contribute to its pathogenesis. The adhesin like collagen binding proteins (CBPs) binds to host resulting in Streptococcal autoimmune sequel like rheumatic heart disease. So far, no study has been made on this context from India. In this study an attempt has been made to study the expression of different CBPs in Group A Streptococcus (GAS) strains from North India.Methods: Throat swabs were collected from the children (age group 5-15 yr) with the symptoms of rheumatic fever and confirmed for Group A Streptococcus. Strains were emm typed and studied for the presence of CBPs like cpa, cna, cne, scl1 and scl2 by PCR and real time-PCR analysis.Results: The prevalence of GAS is found to be 6.6 per thousand in our community. The strains showed the presence of emm types-11, 12, 42, 57, 66, 68 and 81.1. Among the five CBP genes, three were present in all the throat isolates studied. The results were further confirmed with real time PCR.Conclusion: Prevalence of CBPs could be correlated with the virulence of GAS strains.

Results revealed that post-pandemic influenza seasons in Macedonia were rather different. Although the influenza season pattern is similar to patterns in some countries of the WHO European region, some unique characteristics were observed.

Background: Anatomical lung resection offers the best chance of cure for patients with localized lung cancer. Very often late diagnoses, advanced stage of the disease limit radical anatomical surgical resection. Use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy made some of the cases operable, and later they were surgically treated.