The seroprevalence and genotypes of hepatitis C virus (HCV) were studied in 283 patients attending six haemodialysis units in Jordan. In all, 98 (34.6%) patients were anti-HCV-positive by EIA, 92 (93.9%) of whom were also reactive in an immunoblot assay. The prevalence of anti-HCV was correlated with a history of blood transfusion before the introduction of blood donor screening for HCV and with duration of haemodialysis. HCV RNA was detected in 30 (30.6%) of 98 anti-HCV-positive sera. HCV viraemia was not associated with a particular antibody for the six HCV antigens studied by the immunoblot assay, although reactivity to the core antigens was greater in the HCV RNA-positive sera than in negative sera. Two HCV genotypes (1 and 4) were identified for the first time in Jordan by restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of HCV 59-NCR. The predominant genotype was HCV 1a (12 of 30). Genotypes 1b and 4 were detected in 10 and 8 patients, respectively. The antibody response to HCV antigens was genotype-dependent, with a wider range of antibody specificities detected in the immunoblot assay in the 12 patients with genotype 1a infection than in the 8 patients with genotype 4. However, there was no significant difference in the prevalence of antibodies to HCV antigens among patients infected with either genotype 1a or 1b. In conclusion, the prevalence of anti-HCV, blood transfusion, duration of dialysis and HCV genotypes suggest possible nosocomial HCV transmission among patients which needs confirmation by phylogenetic analysis of subgenomic HCV regions.

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The present study demonstrates that the nasal carriage rate of Staphylococcus aureus was 40% in Jordanian healthy young adult population, and 19% of nasal S. aureus and 57% of clinical isolates over the same period were resistant to oxacillin (MRSA), respectively. The mecA gene was detected in all MRSA isolates in both groups. Most of MRSA isolates were multiresistant to three antibiotic classes (beta-lactams, aminoglycosides, macrolides-lincosamides). This result suggests a serious problem may be encountered in treatment of staphylococcal infections in Jordan.

A total of 100 Jordanian clinical Staphylococcus aureus isolates was analysed for the presence of the enterotoxin genes sea, seb, sec, sed and see using multiplex PCR. Twenty-three isolates (23 %) were potentially enterotoxigenic. The prevalence of sea, sec and sea plus sec among the total clinical isolates was 15, 4 and 4 %, respectively. None of the isolates harboured sed, seb or see genes. S. aureus isolates were subjected to DNA fingerprinting by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis to test whether isolates harbouring the toxin genes were genetically clustered. A total of 13 genotypes was identified at a 47 % similarity level. Genotypes I and V accounted for the largest number of enterotoxigenic isolates (19 %). This study has demonstrated the genetic diversity of Jordanian clinical S. aureus isolates and shown that the presence of the toxin genes is not genotype specific. INTRODUCTIONStaphylococcus aureus produces a variety of extracellular toxins and virulence factors that contribute to its pathogenic potential. Some S. aureus strains produce pyrogenic exotoxins, such as staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs) and toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 (Sharma et al., 2000). SEs are a group of single-chain, low-molecular-mass proteins that are similar in composition and biological activity but differ in antigenicity (Fueyo et al., 2001). Several serologically distinct SEs have been recognized, comprising the classical SEs (SEA to SEE) (Dinges et al., 2000;Becker et al., 2003) and the newly described SEs (SEG to SER and SEU) (Su & Wong, 1995;Jarraud et al., 2001;Letertre et al., 2003).The enterotoxins of S. aureus can be detected by their biological activity, by immunoassays and by PCR (McLauchlin et al., 2000). The prevalence of enterotoxigenic clinical S. aureus isolates has been reported in different countries by many investigators (Mehrotra et al., 2000;Fueyo et al., 2001;Becker et al., 2003). There are no published reports on the prevalence of these genes in Jordanian S. aureus isolates.Accurate and rapid typing of S. aureus strains is crucial to the control of infectious strains. Numerous typing methods have been described (Frénay et al., 1994;Kluytmans et al., 1995;Yoshida et al., 1997;van Leeuwen et al., 2003); among these is randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis, which has been found to be a simple, rapid and effective method for genotyping of S. aureus (Tambic et al., 1997).The purpose of this study was to investigate (i) the prevalence of the classical enterotoxin genes in Jordanian clinical isolates of S. aureus, (ii) the genetic variation among these isolates using RAPD analysis and (iii) the genotype specificity of the classical enterotoxin genes. METHODSBacterial strains. This study used 100 clinical S. aureus isolates that were collected and identified by biochemical tests during a previous study (Al-Zu'bi et al., 2004). These isolates were obtained from various clinical specimens submitted to the microbiology laboratory of Jordan University Hospital, Amman, Jordan. In all assays,...

The majority of human group A rotaviruses possess the P[8] VP4 genotype. Recently, a genetically distinct subtype of the P[8] genotype, also known as OP354-like P[8] or lineage P[8]-4, emerged in several countries. However, it is unclear for how long the OP354-like P[8] gene has been circulating in humans and how it has spread. In a global collaborative effort 98 (near-)complete OP354-like P[8] VP4 sequences were obtained and used for phylogeographic analysis to determine the viral migration patterns. During the sampling period, 1988-2012, we found that South and East Asia acted as a source from which strains with the OP354-like P[8] gene were seeded to Africa, Europe, and North America. The time to the most recent common ancestor (TMRCA) of all OP354-like P[8] genes was estimated at 1987. However, most OP354-like P[8] strains were found in three main clusters with TMRCAs estimated between 1996 and 2001. The VP7 gene segment of OP354-like P[8] strains showed evidence of frequent reassortment, even in localized epidemics, suggesting that OP354-like P[8] genes behave in a similar manner on the evolutionary level as other P[8] subtypes. The results of this study suggest that OP354-like P[8] strains have been able to disperse globally in a relatively short time period. This, in combination with a relatively large genetic distance to other P[8] subtypes, might result in a lower vaccine effectiveness, underscoring the need for a continued surveillance of OP354-like P[8] strains, especially in countries where rotavirus vaccination programs are in place.