Knowledge and Preventive Practice on COVID-19 among Civil Employees Working In Selected Unit of Dhaka Cantonment

Corona viruses are a large group of viruses that are responsible for sickness starting from mild common cold to extremely severe form of diseases. Prevention is the best method to control COVID-19 pandemic. The World Health Organization recommended that generating awareness by enriching knowledge of people to rule out COVID-19. To find out the level of knowledge and status of preventive practice on COVID-19 among Civil employees of Central Ordnance Depot (COD) and Central Mechanical Transport Depot (CMTD) of Dhaka Cantonment. This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 151 civil employees of COD (Central Ordnance Depot) and CMTD (Central Mechanical Transport Depot), Dhaka cantonment from July 2020 to June 2021. Systematic random sampling technique was used to select the respondents. Data collection was done by face to face interview with using semi-structured questionnaire. The mean age of the respondent was 37.94±10.12 years. Among the respondents 84.8% were male, rest 15.2% were female. Mean score of knowledge highest (17.73) in 18-29 years age group, in female (17.83), 2nd class employee (18.00) and those qualified in graduation and above (17.27). Regarding level of knowledge 77.48% respondents had excellent knowledge, of which most of them were doing practice. The association between knowledge and preventive practice of COVID-19 on hand washing (p=0.01), wearing face mask (p=0.000), maintaining social distance (p=0.002) were found statistically significant. In this study most of the respondents had 'excellent' and 'good' level of knowledge on COVID-19, of which most of them were doing practice. There are some, those who had knowledge but not doing practice. On the other hand some had no knowledge on particular event of COVID-19, but were doing practice unknowingly.

Characterization of β-lactamase and quinolone resistant Clostridium perfringens recovered from broiler chickens with necrotic enteritis in Bangladesh

BACKGROUND

Clostridium perfringens causes necrotic enteritis (NE) and is considered a major economic burden in the broiler industry and a significant foodborne pathogen, worldwide.

AIMS

Clostridium perfringens isolated from NE affected broiler chickens was aimed to characterize and the presence of β-lactamase and quinolone resistant genes were also investigated in the isolates.

METHODS

A total of 224 intestinal and caecal specimens were collected from NE affected broiler chickens and cultured to isolate C. perfringens. The toxicogenic characterization of C. perfringens was appraised using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and antibiotic susceptibility testing (disc diffusion method). The selected C. perfringens isolates were characterized for β-lactamase and quinolone encoding genes by PCR analysis.

RESULTS

All isolates were cultured positive for C. perfringens and the toxin-encoding genes of C. perfringens (α-, β-, β2-, ε-, ι-, and enterotoxin) were also identified. About 65.6% of isolates had a multi-drug resistant (MDR) profile but none of these isolates were resistant or susceptible to all screened antibiotics. A subset of isolates, 160 and 98 were analyzed for β-lactamase and quinolone genes, respectively, and recognized bla TEM, bla SHV, and bla OXA in 64 (40%; CI: 32.35-48.03%; P<0.001) isolates, and qnrB and qnrS in 28 (28.57%; CI: 19.90-38.58%; P<0.001) isolates except qnrA.

CONCLUSION

Therefore, the isolates of C. perfringens were toxicogenic and carried β-lactamase, and quinolone resistance genes. Nowadays, the rational use of antibiotics and safe production of broiler chickens are the major concern to save public health.

Isolation and molecular identification of Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) virus from infected cattle in Bangladesh

Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) is a new disease of cattle in Bangladesh. It is endemic in Africa but through the last few years disease beings to spread to other countries of the world. The disease was widely spreaded in the many other countries in Asia and some parts of Europe. In Bangladesh, the disease was first time detected in April 2019, in southern part and then continued to spread all over the country.The disease caused enormous economic losses causing cutaneous and internal lesions, affecting milk production, hide quality and in some cases death of infected animal. LSD suspected samples were collected from different areas of the country during the period from July 2019 to January 2020. In this study, a total of 36 clinically suspected LSD samples of skin crustnodules, pus and ocular discharge were collected. Samples were examined by the published PCR protocol for LSD virus, GPV and SPV. Around 78% samples were found positive for LSD virus in PCR test. LSD virus was also identified from pus and ocular discharge of infected cattle. The virus can grow in the lamb testicular cell and clinically the disease is characterized by distinctive nodular lesions mostly on the skin of the affected animals.The results indicated that the LSD virus is circulating in the outbreak are as and is an emerging transboundary cattle disease in Bangladesh. Bang. J. Livs. Res. Vol. 26 (1&2), 2019: P. 15-20

Common Respiratory Diseases of Poultry in Bangladesh: A Review

Now-a-days, the poultry production in Bangladesh has become a sustainable and profitable industry. The poultry sectors are contributing to meet the national demand of proteins as well as implementing food security along with employment generation. The poultry industries are frequently affected by respiratory diseases. There are five viral respiratory diseases associated with respiratory systems such as Avian influenza (AI), Newcastle disease (ND), Infectious bronchitis (IB), Infectious laryngotracheitis (ILT), and Avian metapneumovirus (AE). Among them, AI outbreaks have been occurring regularly with changing genetic characters since 2007 and atotal of 556 AI outbreaks have been reported yet in Bangladesh that placed in most AI reporter countries. Bacterial diseases like Mycoplasmosis, Ornithobacterium rhinotracheale, Fowl cholera, and Infectious coryza are mostly prevalent respiratory diseases in Bangladesh. Mycoplasmosis is become a major threat for poultry industry especially Sonali (a cross-bred) type chickens due to poor biosecurity and breeding management. With respect to fungal diseases, Aspergillosis or brooder pneumonia is a highly prevalent respiratory disease in Bangladesh with causing pneumonia in young chickens. However, respiratory diseases are prevalent in higher rates and cause outbreaks frequently. SAARC J. Agri., 18(1): 1-11(2020)

A meta-analysis of the relative efficacy and toxicity of single daily dosing versus multiple daily dosing of aminoglycosides

We performed a meta-analysis of the efficacy and toxicity of single daily dosing (SDD) vs. multiple daily dosing of aminoglycosides and summarized the results of the four previously published meta-analyses on this subject. Our analysis showed that the overall clinical response rate favored SDD therapy (mean difference, +3.06%; 95% confidence limit [CL], +0.17% to +5.95%; P = .04). However, we found no significant difference in the overall microbiological response rates (mean difference, +1.25%; 95% CL, -0.40% to +2.89%) or in the clinical response rates (mean difference, +0.62%; 95% CL, -2.48% to +3.71%) when patients who received adjunctive antimicrobial therapy were excluded from the analysis. No significant differences were found in the incidences of nephrotoxicity, ototoxicity, or vestibular toxicity; the summary differences in the rates of these toxicities were -0.18% (95% CL, -2.17% to +1.81%), +1.38% (95% CL, -0.99% to +3.75%), and -3.05% (95% CL, -10.69% to +4.59%), respectively. These results are similar to those of the previously published meta-analyses.