Background:The emergence of multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii complicates the therapy of the related infections. Hospital isolates of A. baumannii are usually multidrug-resistant. The problem is compounded by increasing resistance to broad-spectrum antibiotics including carbapenems.Objectives:The aim of this study was to determine antimicrobial susceptibility patterns and distribution of blaOXA-type carbapenemases genes among A. baumannii isolates from hospitalized patients in Shiraz, Southwest Iran.Materials and Methods:Two hundred A. baumannii isolates were recovered from different clinical specimens in four Shiraz teaching hospitals. Isolates were detected as A. baumannii by Microgen kit and PCR with specific primers of blaOXA-51-like gene. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was determined by disk diffusion method for all the isolates. Multiplex PCR assays were performed for detection of blaOXA-23-like, blaOXA-24-like and blaOXA-58-like genes.Results:All the isolates were susceptible to colistin and polymyxin B. Moreover, all of them were resistant to piperacillin, piperacillin-tazobactam, ampicillin, ceftazidime, cefoxitin and aztreonam. Eighty (40%) isolates had positive results for blaOXA-23-like, 14 (7%) for blaOXA-24-like and 1 (0.5%) isolate for blaOXA-58-like. The co-existence of studied genes was detected for blaOXA-23-like plus blaOXA-24-like in nine (4.5%) isolates.Conclusions:The prevalence of carbapenem resistant A. baumannii isolates in Shiraz hospitals is high. The blaOXA-23-like gene was the most frequent carbapenemase identified among resistant A. baumannii isolated in Shiraz hospitals. The increasing incidence of A. baumannii is a serious concern, therefore control of this pathogen and taking preventive measures are emphasized.

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Background and Aim: Today, one of the problems of health systems is the presence of cockroaches in hospitals as insects that move freely in and out of the hospitals and are infected with pathogenic bacteria. The aim of this study was to identify carbapenem resistance genes in Escherichia coli isolated from Blattella germanica by dot blot assay in Hamadan hospitals in the west of Iran. Materials and Methods:A total of 109 B. germanica from April to September 2018 were collected from ICUs of different hospitals in the Hamadan province, located in western Iran. The B. germanica were identified using reliable taxonomic keys by an expert in the

Background Clostridioides (Clostridium) difficile is an important infectious pathogen, which causes mild-to-severe gastrointestinal infections by creating resistant spores and producing toxins. Spores contaminated foods might be one of the most significant transmission ways of C. difficile-associated infections. This systematic review and meta-analysis study were conducted to investigate the prevalence of C. difficile in food. Methods Articles that published the prevalence of C. difficile in food in PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus databases were retrieved using selected keywords between January 2009 and December 2019. Finally, 17,148 food samples from 60 studies from 20 countries were evaluated. Results The overall prevalence of C. difficile in various foods was 6.3%. The highest and lowest levels of C. difficile contamination were detected to seafood (10.3%) and side dishes (0.8%), respectively. The prevalence of C. difficile was 4% in cooked food, 6.2% in cooked chicken and 10% in cooked seafood. Conclusions There is still little known concerning the food-borne impact of C. difficile, but the reported contamination might pose a public health risk. Therefore, to improve the food safety and prevent contamination with C. difficile spores, it is necessary to observe hygienic issues during foods preparation, cooking and transfer.

Objectives. Some studies have shown that increased nitric oxide (NO) concentrations may be associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). In a few animal researches, enhanced synthesis of NO had reversed the effect of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). The present study tries to find the effect of treatment with SSRIs on NO serum levels and its product peroxynitrite. Patients and Methods. Patients diagnosed with OCD who are candidates of receiving SSRIs entered this study. Two blood samples were taken from subjects, prior to drug therapy and after the patients had shown some improvements due to their regimen. Serum NO and peroxynitrite levels were measured and their correlation with SSRI use was assessed. Results. 31 patients completed this study. Mean concentrations of NO and peroxynitrite prior to drug therapy were 28.63 ± 16.9 and 5.73 ± 2.5 μmol/L, respectively. These values were 18.87 ± 7.55 and 2.15 ± 0.94 μmol/L at the second blood test. With p values < 0.05, these differences were considered significant. Conclusion. Patients, who showed improvement of OCD symptoms after a mean duration of SSRI monotherapy of 3.531 ± 0.64 months, had lower values of NO and peroxynitrite in their sera compared to their levels prior to therapy. Such results can be helpful in finding a predictive factor of response to therapy and augmentation therapy with future drugs that target NO synthesis.