فهرست مطالب rahele miri

 Occult hepatitis B infection (OBI) refers to the presence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA in the serum or liver of individuals who tested negative for HBV surface antigen (HBsAg). This study aimed to determine seropositivity for antibodies against HBV core antigen (anti-HBc) and the frequency of OBI among the HBsAg non-reactive blood donors in Mashhad, northeastern Iran.

 In this cross-sectional study, serum samples of HBsAg-negative blood donors were examined for anti-HBc during June and August 2018. Anti-HBc-positive samples were tested for antibodies against HBsAg (anti-HBs), and those with negative results were classified as isolated anti-HBc cases. The presence of HBV DNA in the C, S, and X gene regions was assessed by a qualitative real-time polymerase chain reaction method in all HBsAg-negative samples. OBI subjects were detected by the presence of at least one HBV genomic region.

 Of 540 HBsAg-negative donors, 29 (5.4%; 95% confidence interval: 3.6–7.6%) showed seroreactivity for anti-HBc, of whom 18 individuals were also seropositive for anti-HBs. All donors showed negative results for all three HBV genes regardless of their serum anti-HBc status.

 Based on our findings, we suggest routine screening of Iranian blood donation volunteers for serum anti-HBc and anti-HBs but not HBV DNA.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is now of global concern due to its rapid dissemination across the globe. The rapid spread of this viral infection, along with many of its unknown aspects, has posed new challenges to the health care systems. The main challenging effects of COVID-19 are rapid dissemination through close contact and varying clinical severity among different individuals. Furthermore, the medical staff in endemic areas are becoming exhausted and deal with a considerable level of job burnout, which can negatively affect their medical decision making. Also, due to the variable pulmonary manifestations of COVID-19, some physicians may misdiagnose patients. To overcome these issues, we proposed a web-based software to aid physicians in detecting possible COVID-19 cases through online consultation with different specialists and educate the not-well experienced physicians. Our results demonstrated that this software could improve the diagnostic rate for not-well experienced physicians.

Almost 350 million people worldwide are carriers of hepatitis B virus. The rate of chronic carriers in Iran is about 3%. Therefore Iran is categorized as a country with moderate rate of infection with this virus. In developing countries, transmission from mother to fetus and newborn is considered as one of the main routes of transmission. So, this study investigated the prevalence of hepatitis B and its risk factors in pregnant women.
Material and In this descriptive cross-sectional study which has been done in 2010-2011, of 759 pregnant women referred to the Central Laboratory of ACCER and laboratory of Mashhad Ghaem hospital for HBsAg testing, after obtaining consent form, patients entered to the study with simple non-probability sampling, and a questionnaire was completed about demographic characteristics and related factors. Then data were analyzed by SPSS ver.13.
The mean age of participants was 28.16 ± 4.8, the prevalence of HBsAg among pregnant women was reported 0.3%, and also because of finding only two cases of HBsAg positive, significant association was not found with socio-demographic factors such as; vaccination history of hepatitis B (P= 0.527) and risk factors including family history of hepatitis B or hepatitis C (P= 0.999).
Our study revealed that the prevalence rate of HBsAg positive among pregnant women is low. The prevalence of obtained HBsAg in this study compared to other studies from Iran is low, so, further studies with more cases are necessary to achieve real estimation of HBsAg positive among pregnant women.

HIV/AIDS is a serious global health problem with an adverse impact on human health and his socioeconomic status in different countries..
The aim of the present study was to estimate the prevalence of HIV infection in Mashhad city..
This cross sectional study was performed since May to September 2009 in Mashhad, Iran. A total of 1,678 individuals ranged 1-90 years of age were selected randomly from different geographical regions of the city, proportionate to sex and age distribution of the population according to 2006 census. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to screen anti-HIV antibodies and the positive samples were confirmed by Western Blot (WB) assay. In anti-HIV positive cases, antibodies to human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) as well as the surface antigen of hepatitis B virus (HBV) were evaluated by the ELISA Kits..
A total of 1,651 serum samples were analyzed for anti-HIV antibodies. A total number of 751 of participants were males (45.5%) and 900 were females (54.5%). The mean age was 27.9 ± 19.0 and 30.0 ± 18.0 years, respectively. Anti-HIV seropositivity was detected in 12 cases (0.73%, 95% CI: 0.38 - 1.27 percent). No samples were further confirmed by WB technique, thus the overall prevalence of HIV infection was 0 (95% CI: 0.00 - 0.22 %). No case with co-infection of HBV, HCV, or HTLV-1 was observed in individuals who showed seroactivity for HIV antibodies..
This first population-based survey showed no evidence of HIV infection in the general population of Mashhad. It seems that implemented health policies and strategies have contributed to this low prevalence and this shall be continued..

Hepatitis A Virus (HAV) is the most common cause of acute viral hepatitis worldwide, mostly in developing countries.

This population-based survey was performed to investigate HAV seroprevalence in Mashhad, northeast of Iran.

A cross-sectional study was performed on 1563 randomly selected individuals from general population of Mashhad, Iran, between May and September 2009. Serum samples were tested for total anti-HAV antibodies using the Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) kit. Data was analyzed using SPSS ver. 18.0 by Chi-square and Student’s t-Tests.

Seroprevalence of HAV infection was 69.6% (95% CI: 67.3-71.9%) with no difference between males and females. Anti-HAV seropositivity increased with rising age from 9.4% in subjects younger than 5 years to 100.0% in individuals older than 65 years old (P < 0.001).

As it was previously reported by the World Health Organization (WHO) on HAV infection in the country, this study revealed a high prevalence of HAV infection in Mashhad.

Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) infection is a significant public health concern and responsible for large outbreaks of acute hepatitis in poor sanitary and living conditions.. To investigate the impact of population movements on virus spreading, a large-scale population-based survey was performed in a pilgrimage- tourism area, the great Mashhad, capital city of Khorasan province..Patients and A cross-sectional study was carried out among 1582 randomly selected individuals from general population of Mashhad, north east of Iran, between May to September 2009. Serum samples were tested for total anti-HEV antibody using a specific enzyme linked immunoassay (ELISA) kit.. The prevalence of HEV infection was 14.2% (225/1582) with a maximum of 25.5 % (14/55) in densely populated areas. The highest prevalence was observed in visitant areas (≥ 20%) near the holly shrine with crowded hotels and inns. The differences between these areas and other districts were statistically significant (P < 0.001). The findings indicated that 13.2% (95/718) of males and 15.0% (130/864) of females were HEV positive; this difference is not significant. Seroprevalence increases with age rising, from 12.8% in subjects less than five years to 28.6% in individuals with more than 65 years old. Although, there were no meaningful differences between HEV seropositivity and socio-economic status, Illiterate individuals were significantly at higher risk for infection than educated persons (P < 0.001).. These findings demonstrated that, high prevalence of HEV is related to populated district, which can reach to the highest rate in hotels and inns close to visitants. Traditional sanitation and water supplying systems are the second important factor for the virus transmission. Therefore, it can be concluded that such areas need efficient surveillance systems to prevent the spreading of infectious diseases..

The study of tumor viruses paves the way for understanding the mechanisms of virus pathogenesis, including those involved in establishing infection and dissemination in the host tumor affecting immune-compromised patients. The processes ranging from viral infection to progressing malignancy are slow and usually insufficient for establishment of transformed cells that develop cancer in only a minority of infected subjects. Therefore, viral infection is usually not the only cause of cancer, and further environmental and host factors, may be implicated. HTLV-I, in particular, is considered as an oncovirus cause of lymphoproliferative disease such as adult T cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) and disturbs the immune responses which results in HTLV-I associated meylopathy/tropical spastic parapresis (HAM/TSP). HTLV-I infection causes ATL in a small proportion of infected subjects (2-5%) following a prolonged incubation period (15-30 years) despite a strong adaptive immune response against the virus. Overall, these conditions offer a prospect to study the molecular basis of tumorgenicity in mammalian cells. In this review, the oncogencity of HTLV-I is being considered as an oncovirus in context of ATL.