Abstract
Objectives
Low vitamin D levels are associated with the severity and mortality of COVID-19 infection. Nevertheless, the relationship between the 25-hydroxyvitamin D 25(OH)D levels and the ...antibody response following COVID-19 vaccination is not fully elucidated. Herein, we explored the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 IgG (sCOVG) and 25(OH)D.
Methods
In this prospective observational case-control study, we used an automated chemiluminescent immunoassay method to measure sCOVG and 25(OH)D levels in 96 patients 28 days following the second dose of inactivated vaccine. We considered the positivity for sCOVG at three different index values: 1, 2.42, and 7. We classified 25(OH)D levels between 0 and 20 ng/mL as vitamin D deficiency, 21–29 ng/mL as insufficiency and 30 ng/mL as sufficiency.
Results
Median sCOVG index was 6.02 (interquartile ranges 3.41–11.63) and median 25(OH)D level was 11.5 ng/mL (interquartile ranges 10–17). We could not find a significant correlation between 25(OH)D and sCOVG levels (Spearman’s rho, r=0.175, p=0.12). When considering the variables categorically, we did also not conclude significant relationships between adequate or inadequate antibody responses in patients with deficient, insufficient, and sufficient 25(OH)D by three sCOVG cut-off index values (1, 2.42, and 7) (Chi-square test, p=0.8, 0.29, and 0.08, respectively).
Conclusions
The relevant literature is limited on the association between the antibody response to COVID-19 vaccines and vitamin D levels. Although the previous research suggested conflicting findings of the response to mRNA vaccines, we could not conclude a significant relationship between sCOVG and 25(OH)D levels 28 days after two doses of inactivated COVID-19 vaccine.
The design and development of school health programmes will require information at demographic characteristics of schoolchildren and the major health burdens of the school-age group, the ...opportunities for intervention and the appropriateness of the available infrastructure. This study aims to analyse demographic and parasitic infections status of schoolchildren and sanitary conditions of schools in Sanliurfa province of south-eastern Turkey.
Three primary schools were randomly selected in the shantytown, apartment and rural districts. A total of 1820 schoolchildren between 7-14 years age were took part to the survey of whom 1120 (61.5%) were boys and 700 (38.4%) were girls. A child form (including child's name, sex, age, school grade and parasitic infections) and school survey form (including condition of water supply, condition of latrines, presence of soaps on the basins and presence of garbage piles around to the schools) were used for demographic, parasitic and sanitary surveys. Stool samples were examined by cellophane thick smear technique for the eggs of intestinal helminths.
The demographic survey showed that number of schoolchildren was gradually decreased as their age's increase in shantytown school. The sex ratio was proportional until the second grade, after which the number of females gradually decreased in children in shantytown and rural schools while, in apartment area, schoolchildren was proportionally distributed between age groups and gender even the high-grade students. The prevalence of helminthic infections was %77.1 of the schoolchildren in shantytown, 53.2% in apartment district and 53.1% of rural area. Ascaris lumbricoides was the most prevalent species and followed by Trichuris trichiura, Hymenolepis nana and Taenia species in three schools. Sanitation survey indicated that the tap water was limited in shantytown school, toilet's sanitation was poor, available no soaps on lavatories and garbage piles were accumulated around the schools in shantytown and rural area, while, the school in apartment area was well sanitised.
These results indicated that burden of parasitic infections and poor sanitation conditions constituted public health importance among to the shantytown schoolchildren. School health programmes including deworming and sanitation activities through the health education and improvement of sanitation conditions in the schools have a potential to better health and education for schoolchildren. These programmes also offer the potential to reach significant numbers of population in the shantytown schools with high level of absenteeism.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Soil transmitted helminth (STH) infection are endemic in developing
countries. A study was carried out of sewage farms, streams and
vegetables to determine the sources and routes of STH infection in
...Sanliurfa, Turkey. Stool samples from farmhouse inhabitants as well as
soil and vegetable samples from the gardens were collected and
examined. In addition, water samples from streams and vegetable samples
from the city market were collected and examined. One hundred and
eighty-seven (59.5%) of a total of 314 samples, including 88.4% of the
stool samples, 60.8% of the water samples, 84.4% of the soil samples
and 14% of the vegetable samples, were found to be positive for STH
eggs. These results indicate that the water, soil and vegetables are
heavily contaminated, and suggest a vicious circle between humans and
the environment. Improving environmental sanitation is imperative for
the control of soil-transmitted helminthiasis in Sanliurfa.
This article presents an evaluation of the community perception of the recently implemented School Based Health Program, which delivered anthelmintics to 96,000 schoolchildren in Sanliurfa, Turkey. ...One hundred forty-four parents and 140 teachers were interviewed through questionnaires, focus group discussions, and in-depth interviews. The evaluation indicated that most of the parents and teachers reported that the program was beneficial as it led to improvement in children's health and well being. The evaluation also indicated that 99% of the parents and 98.4% of the teachers approved of the teacher's role in this program. Nearly all of the teachers and parents showed willingness to continue the program in the future and 75% of the parents indicated willingness to pay for the drugs. The evaluation also highlighted that there were critical issues for the successful implementation of the program such as the issue of educating illiterate mothers, higher involvement of families in the mass treatment process, ability to reach a larger number of school absentees, and overcoming the prejudice against externally funded measures, which are perceived by some of the members of the community as an experiment run by foreigners on the local population and the concern of some parents that anthelmintic drug (mebendazole) might cause sexual sterility.
Abstract More than half of the world's population is exposed to malaria in approximately 100 countries. Rapid diagnosis and correct treatment of cases are the main objectives of control programs in ...malaria endemic areas. We have developed a PCR method to determine the presence of plasmodium DNA in blood. The method can also identify the species of the plasmodium by restriction enzyme analysis of the amplified product. We evaluated the performance of this method in the diagnosis of malaria suspected cases in Turkey by comparing to microscopy of the blood smears: blood samples were obtained from 114 patients with malaria symptoms, including fever and/or chills lasting for several days, before starting treatment. Thin and thick blood smears were prepared immediately in the region of specimen collection. After isolation of DNA from blood samples, DNA was amplified by PCR and digested by restriction enzyme Alu I. The obtained fragments were analyzed by agarose gel electrophoresis. The number of parasites in the thick and thin smears of the blood samples was evaluated microscopically after staining by Giemsa and results were compared by PCR results. Among 114 plasmodium positive cases detected by microscopy, 100 were also detected by PCR. There were 14 false negatives and no false positive by PCR. Compared to microscopy, the sensitivity, specificity and Positive Predictive Value (PPV) of PCR were determined as 76%, 100% and 100%, respectively.
The presence of acid fast bacilli in multiple specimens was
investigated comparatively with Ziehl-Neelsen (ZN) and fluorescence
microscopy (FM) staining in order to determine sensitivity in detecting
...tuberculosis (TB). A total of 465 specimens obtained from 295 patients
were analysed at Harran University Medical School Hospital between
March 1998 and March 2000. The culture was employed as the reference
method. Sixty-eight patients (23.1%) were diagnosed as having TB by
culture. The ZN and FM staining sensitivities were 67.6% (46/68) and
85.2% (58/68) respectively. Two hundred and one patients (68.1%)
submitted one specimen to the laboratory. TB positivity was detected in
42 (20.9%) of these patients by culture. The sensitivities of ZN and FM
stains were found to be 61% and 83% in these patients. However, in 18
patients (6.1%) who submitted two specimens to the laboratory, the TB
was positive in six of them (33.3%) and ZN and FM sensitivities were
66% and 83% respectively. When three specimens or more were collected
from the patients (76 patients, 25.8%), TB positivity was determined in
20 of them (26.3%) and the sensitivities were 80% and 92% in the ZN-
and FM-stained smears, respectively. Our data indicate that in the
diagnosis of TB, FM has greater sensitivity than ZN. In particular, in
the case of a single specimen, the diagnostic value of FM is quite
significant. It is, therefore, possible to conclude that both ZN and FM
staining can be used for the diagnosis of TB when there are more than
two specimens. However, if only one or two specimens are available, FM
staining is preferable.
Background and Objectives
This study investigates the association of sociodemographic and attitudinal factors with blood donation frequency in Turkey that may contribute future strategies on donor ...recruitment.
Materials and Methods
A face‐to‐face interview was designed including items about history of prior donations and about attitudinal factors such as personal beliefs, moral norms and personal satisfaction with donation experiences among first‐time, returning and regular donors. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the effect of donor characteristics, sociodemographic and attitudinal variables.
Results
Totally, 7400 whole blood donors attended to the study (20% first‐time, 39% returning and 41% regular donors). Most donors were men; however, women clearly more often donate for the first time and donate less regularly. Age showed a clear effect on the chance of being both of returning and regular donors. Employed returning donors were less likely to return to donation. Education status affected first‐time donation negatively whereas affected regular donation positively. Level of income affected first‐time donation negatively whereas affected returning to donation positively. Blood need of a family member affected on returning to donation and regular donation; however, the conditions of donation units such as ventilation or crowdedness affected on lapsing.
Conclusion
Our results show that age, gender, socio‐economic‐status and attitudinal factors were associated with being a first‐time, returning or regular donor. These data provide Turkish Red Crescent with knowledge on Turkish donor population, which help to build donor recruitment and retention policies.
We compared the diagnostic performance characteristics of newly
developed method, the rapid dipstick test, which provides colorimetric
determination by developing antibody to the lactate ...dehydrogenase
enzyme of parasites, with conventional standard thick-blood film
examination. For the rapid test, OptiMAL commercial kits were used. The
results were also evaluated with clinical findings from patients. The
parasites were determined by microscopic examination of thick-blood
films from 81 patients with vivax malaria from southeastern Anatolia,
Turkey. The OptiMAL test results were found to be negative in five
patients who were diagnosed clinically and through thick-film testing
as having vivax malaria. There was no false positivity observed with
the OptiMAL test. We concluded that this rapid malaria test has a lower
level of sensitivity than the classical thick-blood-film test for
malaria, but that these methods have equal specificity.
In Sanliurfa, Turkey, externally funded temporary deworming activities have led to an internally funded self-sufficient programme in 2004–05 academic year. A total of 200 000 doses of mebendazole ...were distributed to schoolchildren, absentee children and small children and women through both schools and health centres. We interviewed 64 representative teachers, 82 administrative teachers, 112 schoolchildren and 108 parents using questionnaires, department interviews and focus groups discussions. We also collected 162 stool samples from third- and fourth-grade schoolchildren and examined them using the Kato–Katz technique. The evaluation of second year's of deworming program indicated that the programme's methodology of training representative teachers to play a major role in organizing the activities within schools and liaising with health staff was found to be successful by most of the teachers. The results showed that 85.2% of the women had benefited from the extended anthelmintic coverage. A total of 67.4% of them received the drugs from schools and 10.9% obtained them from health centres. The prevalence of helmintic infection had declined from 77 to 35% in shantytown schoolchildren and from 53 to 6.4% in apartment schoolchildren. The prevalence of Ascaris lumbricoides and Trichuris trichiura decreased from 63.2 to 17% and from 16.8 to 1.1%, respectively, in schoolchildren. The results also indicated that 53.5% of the schoolchildren changed over to clean habits and began to use soap after using the toilet. The evaluation of the second year's deworming programme showed that the programme was sustainable and there was no risk of the programme being discontinued. Political commitment was obtained from the local business community, academic sector, the local governmental administrations and the city municipality. These organizations realized the programme's rapid and clear benefits and collaborated in a multipartners’ programme. The cost of treatment per child was $0.05 and in total $11 000 was sufficient to implement a broad-range programme including education of children about cleanliness and treatment of infection to improve their health.
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