When Magdalena was 15 years old she was diagnosed with smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). She lived with her mother, a stepfather and 13 siblings in a very humble dwelling in an Andean country. Her stepfather would often beat her because she was unable to perform her assigned domestic chores. As a result, she would flee and abandon her treatment. She was prescribed several regimens whi...

purpose: to present 2 cases of acanthamoeba keratitis diagnosed by confocal scanning before positive results of smear and culture, and their successful treatment with combined medical therapy and corneal epithelial debridment. patients and findings: confocal scan was carried out in 2 contact lens wearers with a clinical diagnosis of acanthamoeba keratitis followed by corneal epithelial debridme...

OBJECTIVES To measure delays from onset of symptoms to initiation of treatment in patients with smear-negative and smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis and to identify reasons for these delays. METHODS A total of 136 newly diagnosed pulmonary tuberculosis patients were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. RESULTS The patients were divided into two groups. Group 1 included 65 smear...

Background: One of the fundamental issues of infectious disease treatment is drug resistance. The aim of the present study was to investigate the first-line anti-tuberculosis drug resistance rates and determine the risk factors related to multidrug resistant mycobacterium tuberculosis.Methods: From March 2011 to September 2012, mycobacterial strains were collected from one hundred fifteen diagn...

One of the recommended strategies for preventing tuberculosis is to screen high-risk populations with respect to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) infection. The aim of the present study was to investigate latent infection and active tuberculosis in people with close household contact. It was a cross-sectional descriptive, analytical study with the sample size of 668 people from homes with one in...

Background Epidemiological information on tuberculosis (TB) is required to plan control and prevention strategies and to inform service delivery systems. The aim of present study was to determine the epidemiological status of TB in Hamadan Province covering a seven-year period.   Methods In this cross-sectional study all registered TB patients suffering from any form of smear-positive, smear-ne...

Background Cancer cervix is a major health problem in India, accounting for 26.1-43.8% of all cancers in Indian women. Dysplasia on Pap smear has been reported in 15-40% of HIV positive women which is 10-11 times higher than those observed among HIV negative women. Patients with persistent inflammatory Pap smears harbor high proportion of HPV infection and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (20...

BACKGROUND The utility of Mycobacterium tuberculosis direct nucleic acid amplification testing (MTD) for pulmonary tuberculosis disease diagnosis in the United States has not been well described. METHODS We analyzed a retrospective cohort of reported patients with suspected active pulmonary tuberculosis in 2008-2010 from Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, and Massachusetts to assess MTD use, effectiv...

OBJECTIVE Patients admitted to the pulmonary isolation service to rule out tuberculosis (TB) were prospectively studied to identify predictors of smear-positive TB. METHODS History of symptoms--cough, sputum production, fever, weight loss, night sweats, hemoptysis, anorexia, and dyspnea; medical history--TB, tuberculin skin test (TST) status, TB contact; and social factors--crowding index, hi...