The prevalence of Enterococcus faecalis (E. faecalis) infections among Egyptians with urinary tract infection (UTI), their antimicrobial susceptibility and mechanisms of resistance are under investigated. In this study, 300 urine samples were collected from UTI patients to identify E. faecalis. Antimicrobial susceptibility to 18 antimicrobial agents was tested. The presence of aac(6)-Ie-aph(2)Ia, erm(B) and mef(A/E) genes was examined by PCR. Fifty-seven (19%) isolates were identified as E. faecalis. All isolates were sensitive to teicoplanin and were completely resistant to nalidixic acid, cefotaxime and cefadroxil. Multi-drug-resistant (MDR) was found to be 100% with 45 different antibiotypes. The aac(6)Ia-aph(2)Ia gene was found in 100 and 90% of the isolates resistant to gentamicin at concentrations of 120 and 10 μg, respectively. erm(B) and mef(A/E) genes were present in 92.5% (37/40) and 2.5% (1/40) of erythromycin-resistant isolates, respectively. We conclude that there is a high prevalence of E. faecalis in UTI cases with a 100% MDR rate indicating a serious problem in treating infections by this organism in Egypt.

Water hyacinth (WH), an aquatic plant macrophyte, was investigated for its ability to perform as a suitable adsorbent for methylene blue (MB) from aqueous solution. The non-living biomass of WH was subjected to several chemical treatments, namely, washing with hot water, washing with hot dilute HCl, soaking in NaOH, soaking in HNO 3 , and sulfonation. The system variables studied also include pH and MB concentration. The Langmuir isotherm was found to represent the measured adsorption data well except for WH soaked in NaOH, which was found to be better represented by the Freundlich isotherm. Values of the dimensionless separation factor, K R , indicated that the adsorption systems in this study are all favorable. Values of the first layer of adsorption were calculated by the non-linear multilayer adsorption model, and the specific surface area values were found to be high and comparable to commercially activated carbons.

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Background: Infants of diabetic mothers (IDMs) have a significantly greater risk for perinatal morbidity, mortality, and altered immune response. Aim of work:To assess the immune response of IDMs for hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccine and to compare them with infants of non-diabetic mothers as a control group.Patients and Methods: 150 neonates met the inclusion criteria; 100 IDMs and 50 infants' non-diabetic mothers as controls. All neonates who met the inclusion criteria received HBV vaccine during the first 24 hours of age and at 1 and 6 months of age according to the WHO guidelines. Furthermore, hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), hepatitis B virus surface antibodies (anti-HBs), and hepatitis B virus core antibodies (anti-Hbc) were measured at 9, 12, and 24 months of age.Results: IDMs had significantly higher birth weight when compared to infants of the non-diabetic mothers (3.6 ± 0.4 kg and 3.03 ± 0.5 kg, P-value 0.01). There was a significant difference between the response to anti-HBs between case group and control group at 9 months 7±12 mIU/dL versus 20±23 mIU/dL (P-value < 0.0001). However, anti-HBs antibodies levels follow-up at 12 and 24 months showed no significant differences between the case and control groups. Conclusion:At 9 months of age, post HBV vaccination, there was a delayed immune response for HBV vaccine was present in IDM compared to infants of non-diabetic mothers. However, IDM became immune at follow-up at 12 and 24 months of age.

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