Objective:To evaluate the consumption, prevalence, side effects and awareness of energy drinks among female university students in Saudi Arabia.Methods:A quantitative research design was implied with sample size of 358 female students, recruited from Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University. The data, gathered through self-administered questionnaire, was analyzed through SPSS version 20.0 with p value <0.005 deemed statistically significant.Results:From the sample of 358 female students, 337 attempted the questionnaire from which 274 students were identified as energy drink consumers. The reasons for increased consumption of energy drinks mainly include giving company to friends (59.4%), better performance in exams (41.2%), and better concentration in studies (39.4%). The most common side effect was headache (32.3%), and the least was identified as allergy (2%). Only 39.4% and 29.9% of students acquired awareness regarding the harmful effects of energy drink consumption during pregnancy and breast feeding respectively.Conclusion:A significant proportion of female students at Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz have reported to consume energy drinks regularly with several adverse effects. The government of Saudi Arabia should take serious initiatives towards organizing effective awareness programs specifically in universities and colleges to control the consumption of energy drinks and educate on the adverse effects.

Background and Objective: Brucellosis is an important zoonotic disease and a major public health problem in the Middle East countries including Saudi Arabia. This study has evaluated the seroprevalence of human brucellosis in Wadi Al Dawaser region of Central Saudi Arabia. Methods: The study was conducted for three years (2015-2018) at Wadi Al Dawaser general hospital. A total of 6721 clinically suspected serum samples were collected over three years and tested by Rose Bengal Plate Test (RBPT), Serum Agglutination Test (SAT), IgM and IgG ELISA. A standard questionnaire to determine the risk factors were used among patients. Results: Of the total 6721 samples tested, 576 (8.6%) were seropositive for brucellosis. RBPT identified 427 (74.1%), SAT titers 493 (85.6%) cases. IgM ELISA and IgG ELISA were positive for 501 (86.9%) and 558 (96.8%) cases respectively. Among the positive cases, 77.3% were male with the male to female ratio of 3.3:1. Nearly, 82% were Saudi Nationals. Direct contact with domestic animals and consumption of raw milk were the risk factors identified. No seasonal variation was seen. Diagnostic yield of IgM ELISA showed 86.9% sensitivity and 100% specificity; IgG ELISA showed 96.8% sensitivity and 100% specificity. Both IgG and IgM ELISAs showed 100% Positive predictive value, 98.9% and 95.6% Negative predictive value respectively. Conclusion: A seroprevalence of 8.6% of human brucellosis was documented from this rural region. This is the first report from Wadi Al Dawaser. Frequent surveillance among risk group, vaccination of livestock, creating awareness and health education among the public and school children are recommended. How to cite this:Rahamathulla MP. Seroprevalence of Human Brucellosis in Wadi Al Dawaser region of Saudi Arabia. Pak J Med Sci. 2019;35(1):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.35.1.55 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Background and Objective: Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in developed countries. This study has evaluated the frequency of the risk factors of NCDs and its awareness among students in a University in Saudi Arabia. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 374 female students of Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University in Wadi Al Dawaser, Saudi Arabia. The study was carried out for a duration of six months, from August 2019 to January 2020. Standard self-administered questionnaire, anthropometric and biochemical parameters were used for data collection, analysed through SPSS version 20.0. Results: The mean age of the students was 20.6 years. The results showed that 64.7% of students were physically inactive, 52.4% spend more than two hours watching TV. The intake of adequate amount of fruits (14%) and vegetables (6.8%) was very little.  Junk food was consumed >11 times per week by 37.1%. The prevalence of overweight and severe obesity was 25.9% and 5.1% respectively. Blood sugar analysis showed 1.1% had pre-diabetes and 0.8% had diabetes. About 56.2% of students had no knowledge about NCDs and their risk factors. Conclusion: A high prevalence of risk factors for NCDs was found among students. Awareness programs about healthy lifestyle practices; periodic screening of school and college students at regular intervals with appropriate advice are warranted to control the rising epidemic of NCDs. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.4.2400 How to cite this:Rahamathulla MP, Sha MM. Frequency and Awareness of Risk Factors of Non-Communicable Diseases among University Students in Saudi Arabia. Pak J Med Sci. 2020;36(4):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.4.2400 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

The purpose of this study was to characterize the different mechanisms of carbapenem resistance among blood isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli. Meropenem resistant isolates were included. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing, phenotypic and genotypic detection of carbapenemase production were performed. Genetic relatedness of bla NDM-1 producers was determined by pulsed-filed gel electrophoresis (PFGE) typing. The relatedness of bla NDM-1 carrying plasmids was studied by plasmid restriction fragment length polymorphisms (pRFLP) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based replicon typing (PBRT). For the carbapenem gene negative isolates, other possible mechanism of carbapenem resistance such as role of outer membrane porin loss with ESBL or AmpC production, and efflux pumps were analyzed. Among the 162 isolates studied, 1 (0.6%) was found to be bla KPC-3 producer and 42.5% were bla NDM-1 producers. All the isolates were multidrug resistant; two isolates carried both bla NDM-1 and bla VIM-2. PFGE determined bla NDM-1 producers were non-related. The plasmids harbouring bla NDM-1 belonged to two major incompatibility plasmid types, IncL/M and IncA/C. IncL/M is a novel plasmid group reported firstly from this region. A clonal outbreak of bla IMP-1 K. pneumoniae was identified during this study. This is the first report on the emergence of K. pneumoniae producing bla IMP-1 from South India and bla KPC-3 from India. The study suggest including ertapenem in the routine susceptibility screening to find the true rate of KPC producers in Indian hospitals. Colistin and tigecycline are two drugs that have activity but both have developed resistance. Selection of an appropriate initial antibiotic regimen for empiric therapy, rotation of different antibiotic classes and judicious use of antibiotics are essential.

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