Parental views of antibiotic use in children with upper respiratory tract infections in Jordan

Purpose: To assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices of parents towards antibiotics use for upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) in Jordan. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out at 10 private outpatients’ pediatric clinics across Amman-Jordan from September to December 2013. During the study period, 1329 parents of young children who fulfilled the inclusion criteria and agreed to participate were interviewed, and completed a validated structured questionnaire. Results: A large proportion of parents (903, 68 %) believed that weather change was the main cause of acute URTIs in their children. Although 1098 (82.8 %) of parents were aware that the recurrent use of antibiotics leads to a decrease in effectiveness due to bacterial resistance, 859 (64.6 %) of the respondents reported that they would give antibiotics without prescription. Fathers (135, 40.2 %), were significantly more aware that URTIs follow its natural course without antibiotic administration compared to mothers (N = 327, 32.9 %), respectively (p = 0.005). Conclusion: There is a lack of adequate parental knowledge concerning the use and misuse of antibiotics in children in Jordan. National publicity campaign should be mounted to improve awareness. Furthermore, existing laws should be enforced to prevent parents from purchasing antibiotics over-thecounter (OTC).

Flexible bronchoscopy contribution in the approach of diagnosis and treatment of children’s respiratory diseases: the experience of a unique pediatric unit in Tunisia.

Objective: Our study aimed at assessing the role of flexible bronchoscopy (FB) in improving diagnosis and management of children’s respiratory conditions in the pediatric unit of FB, newly created and unique in Tunisia. Methods: Retrospective study including all the FB achieved in our pediatric unit from 2009 to 2014. Results: We performed 365 FB in 333 patients aged 46 months on average (1 month - 15 years), often under conscious anesthesia (81.6%). FB was performed for diagnostic purposes in 341 cases and for therapeutic purposes in 24 cases. Eight anatomical abnormalities were revealed in 22 patients. An intraluminal bronchial obstruction was found in 71 FB, mainly due to a foreign body (n=36). A vascular anomaly was responsible for nine cases out of 17 extraluminal obstructions. Airways malacia was observed in 60 FB. Bronchoalveolar lavage was performed in 196 cases. It was determinant in 43.9% of the cases. FB was of great diagnostic value in 74.8% of the cases. It influenced the management of the patients in 58% of the cases. The FB for therapeutic purposes was beneficial in all cases. Few complications occurred (5.5%). Conclusion: FB is a safe tool providing precious diagnostic and/or therapeutic help for the clinician. Keywords:

Prevalence and associated factors of TB/HIV co-infection among HIV Infected patients in Amhara region, Ethiopia.

Background: Tuberculosis is one of the world’s most common causes of death in the era of Human immunodeficiency virus. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence and associated factors of TB/HIV co-infection. Methods: Hospital based retrospective studies were conducted among adult HIV-positive patients. Logistic regression method and Chi square test were applied. Results: A total of 571 HIV positive study participants were enrolled. Of these, 158 (27.7%) were found to have pulmonary tuberculosis. Lower baseline CD4 count<200cell/μl, patients who drunk alcohol, patients who were ambulatory at the initiation of ART, patients whose marital status was single were significant predictors for increased risk of tuberculosis in PLWHIV (P <0.05). Non smoker patients, patients in WHO clinical stage I, patients in WHO clinical stage II and ownership of the house had significant protective benefit against risk of TB (P <0.05). Conclusion: The prevalence of TB/HIV co-infection in adults on ART in our study was moderately high. Having advanced clinical status and presence of risk factors were found to be the predicting factors for co-infection. The health office should open TB/HIV co-infection units in the hospitals and health workers should be cautious when a patient has an advanced disease.

Candidaemia or Candidasis: Controversy of Staphylococcus Sexually Transmitted Infection?

Herbal medications are becoming increasingly popular but a most-extraordinary claim by traditional/herbal medical practitioners relates to a Gram-positive bacterium, Staphylococcus , which has been depicted as a deadly sexually transmitted disease that manifest in the form of worms and other symptoms; with contributory roles including infertility, sexual dysfunction and impotency. They further boasted that they are the only ones that possessed the remedy (herbal) for the Staphylococcus sexually transmitted scourge. In the absence of distinguishing phenotypic taxonomic tools, Staphylococcus and Candida spp. may be confused for each other. However, Staphylococcus is a bacterium and not an infection; therefore, there must be more to the traditional medical practitioners’ boasts in ability to cure an infection that was not an infection in the first place. In conclusion, the common sense is that candiaemia or candidiasis is most likely the misdiagnosed sexually transmitted Staphylococcus disease, which is of significant human clinical health issue.