10^th International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases December 02-03, 2019 Barcelona, Spain

Faryal Khamis completed his medical school training at the Sultan Qaboos University in Oman in 1993. Following a residency program in Internal Medicine at University of Minnesota in 1999. She did fellowships in Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology at Duke University Medical Center. Khamis worked as ID consultant in Sultan Qaboos Hospital from 2002 to 2008. She is currently working as a senior consultant and head of Infectious Diseases Department at Royal Hospital in Muscat, Oman. She chairs the Infection Prevention and Control Committee and Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee. Faryal Khamis has several publications in scientific journals. Her main interests include respiratory viral infections and infections in immunocompromised hosts including HIV.

Statement of the Problem: Historical information, microbial sequencing and phylogenetic constructions make it clear that infectious diseases have been emerging and reemerging over millennia and those emergences are driven by numerous factors. Despite extraordinary advances in development of medical advancements (diagnostics,  therapeutics, and vaccines), the ease of world travel and increased global interdependence have added layers of complexity to containing infectious diseases that affect not only the health but the economic stability of societies.

 

Findings: Notably, 60 to 80 percent of new human infections likely originated in animals. Most other emerging/ reemerging diseases result from human-adapted infectious agents that genetically acquire heightened transmission and/or pathogenic characteristics such as multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant (MDR and XDR) tuberculosis. In the meantime, new human diseases keep emerging such as the novel MERS coronavirus emerged in Saudi Arabia in late 2012 and a new H7N9 avian influenza virus became epizootic in Eastern China in early 2013.

 

Conclusion: Many of these emerging/ reemerging infections whether or not proceed to outbreaks, attract global attention and require significant international effort to monitor and contain. Microbial advantages can be met and overcome only by aggressive vigilance, ongoing dedicated research, and rapid development and deployment of such countermeasures as surveillance tools, diagnostics, drugs, and vaccines.

 

Houda Moumni Abdou is an Infectious Diseases Specialist. She worked at the Directorate of Epidemiology and Diseases Control at the Ministry of Health of Morocco. Currently, she is following a master degree of field epidemiology training program at FETP CDC.

Background: Malaria remains a major public health problem and a real threat to global health. According to WHO in 2015, there was an estimate of 212 million malaria cases with 429,000 deaths worldwide. This disease is endemic  in tropical and subtropical countries with a high risk for travelers. Morocco was certified in 2010 by WHO as free from endemic malaria transmission. Nevertheless, an increasing number of imported cases are reported each year. Thus, we studied its epidemiological characteristics to determine its trends and to guide recommendations for its control.

 

Methods: A retrospective descriptive study was conducted on reported cases from the surveillance system of  parasitic diseases at the Directorate of Epidemiology and Disease Control between 2011 and 2016. Frequencies and

proportions were calculated on socio-demographics data and trends.

 

Results: Our records showed a total of 2422 imported malaria cases including 26 deaths. The 3-year moving average reveals a slight constant trend increase (2%). Imported malaria was predominant among Moroccans (82.3%) than foreigners (17.7%). Males were over represented with a sex ratio of 12.2:1. The disease was reported by both civilian and military sectors (56% versus 44%). The median age was 32 years (range: 1 to 80). Outside the military, workers accounted for 48.6%, students 17% and the truckers 11.5%. Plasmodium falciparum was predominant (66%). Almost all of cases (96%) came from African countries. In 54% of cases, chemoprophylaxis was not taken by travelers.

 

Conclusion: Imported malaria is an important cause of morbidity and mortality. Prevention strategies for travelers

need to be strengthened in order to educate them on the need for prophylaxis and the importance of preventive

measures. In addition, targeting high-risk groups and strengthening continuous education training for clinicians

would significantly reduce the risk of imported malaria in Morocco.

 

 

Rachid Selmi is a captain veterinary doctor in Tunisian General Directorate of Military Health and PhD student in Tunisian Agronomic Institute. He is interested in vector borne disease in domestic livestock.

Tick-borne disease constitutes a serious challenge associated to human and animal illnesses, economic losses and  control measure. As well as other ruminants, camels in arid area are involved in these infections as host and/or carrier. The current study, reported infection of ticks infesting Tunisian dromedaries (Camelus dromedarius) by Coxiella burnetii and the endosymbiotic bacteria Candidatus Midichloria mitochondrii. A total of 327 non-engorged ticks, including 160 Hyalomma dromedarii (49%), 158 H. impeltatum (48.3%) and 9 H. excavatum (2.7%) removed from 412 one humped dromedaries were subjected to PCR amplification using specific primers. Coxiella burnetii and C.M. mitochondrii DNA were detected in 3.6% (12/327) and 8% (26/327) of tested ticks, respectively. However, no positive DNA camels’ blood sample was observed for both bacteria. The genetic characterization of obtained Coxiella strains based on the IS1111 and htpB genes revealed 100% of identity to the classified pathogenic C. burnetii with absence of all endosymbiosis related strains (Coxiella-like bacteria). The same applies to bacteria of the family Midichloriaceae genetic variants identified based on the 16SrRNA gene analysis revealed 100% of similarity to C.M. mitochondrii. These findings added to the growing evidence of the involvement of Hyalomma species in the active diffusion of these bacteria among camels, livestock and human. To our knowledge, this paper constitutes the first report highlighting the presence of the classified C. burnetii and the endosymbiont C.M. mitochondrii in Ticksinfesting camels from Tunisia. Interestingly, other investigations are needed to survey the zoonotic potential of these infectious agents among camels’ owners and other animals.

Manal A.M. Antonios has completed her PhD at the age of 39 years from Alexandria University and postdoctoral studies at Alexandria University Faculty of Medicine. Now, she is an assistant professor of pediatrics and head of pediatric intensive care unit in El-Shatby University children’s hospital, an ISO 9001 certified unit. She has published more than 10 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as reviewer of repute.

Aim: Multidrug-resistant infections are an increasingly common condition particularly in critical care units. This

study aimed to determine the incidence and types of resistant bacteria acquired in a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) of a university hospital.

 

Subject and Methods: A prospective study was conducted during the year 2016. All children aged below 16 years were studied for infection development and pattern of susceptibility to various groups of antibiotics.

 

Results: A total of 264 patients were admitted to the PICU: 16 patients had community-acquired infection (CAI), 23 had hospital-acquired infection, and 24 patients had PICU-acquired infection (with 36 episodes)which is equivalent to 14.75 case/1,000 patient days. The study revealed high incidence of resistant organisms in the PICU but more important is the appearance of multi- and extreme drug-resistant bacteria in CAI. The study revealed that  ramnegative bacteria were more prevalent in PICU, especially Klebsiella (30.5%), Acinetobacter baumanii (22.22%), and Pseudomonas (16.67%). Infection with resistant organisms in the PICU caused initial treatment failure and increased fourfold risk of mortality.

 

Conclusion: The incidence of resistant bacteria especially gram-negative pathogens was very high in the PICU. The

top three resistant organisms of concern were Klebsiella, Acinetobacter, and Pseudomonas. This is a global concern

that necessitates new strategies.