In Qatar, one out of every ten patients admitted to the hospitals is in urgent need of a blood transfusion or blood products. The aims of this study are as follows: (1) to assess the level of awareness and knowledge about blood donation and (2) to identify the factors that contribute to the willingness to donate blood among young adults. A cross-sectional survey using a constructed questionnaire was conducted among students at Qatar University. A total of 590 responses were collected, out of which 423 were suitable for analysis. Only 72 out of 472 (15%) participants were blood donors. The chi-square test and t-test were then used to study the association of blood donation status with different factors. Significant values were considered to be p ≤ 0.5. Gender and age were found to be significantly associated with blood donation status, with a higher frequency of donation among males and adults above the age of 24 years old. On the other hand, the total knowledge score was found to not be significantly associated with blood donation status with a mean score of 60.5% for both groups (blood donors, non-blood donors). The most common motivators that encouraged blood donors were donating to help people, followed by having a blood mobile unit come to your place, whereas the most common barriers reported by non-blood donors were failing to meet the requirements, followed by “never having been asked to give blood”. This is the first study in Qatar to assess blood donation status. It provides insights that would help in developing effective strategies for the recruitment and retention of young adult blood donors in Qatar and countries with similar cultures. Raising awareness about blood donation, along with providing more mobile blood donation units at public places, will aid in increasing the frequency of blood donation among young adults.

Background Obesity, one of the most common chronic health conditions worldwide, is a multifactorial disease caused by complex genetic and environmental interactions. Several association studies have revealed a considerable number of candidate loci for obesity; however, the genotype–phenotype correlations remain unclear. To date, no comprehensive systematic review has been conducted to investigate the genetic risk factors for obesity among Arabs. Objectives This study aimed to systematically review the genetic polymorphisms that are significantly associated with obesity in Arabs. Methods We searched four literature databases (PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, and Google Scholar) from inception until May 2020 to obtain all reported genetic data related to obesity in Arab populations. Quality assessment and data extraction were performed individually by three investigators. Results In total, 59 studies comprising a total of 15,488 cases and 9,760 controls were included in the systematic review. A total of 76 variants located within or near 49 genes were reported to be significantly associated with obesity. Among the 76 variants, two were described as unique to Arabs, as they have not been previously reported in other populations, and 19 were reported to be distinctively associated with obesity in Arabs but not in non-Arab populations. Conclusions There appears to be a unique genetic and clinical susceptibility profile of obesity in Arab patients.

BackgroundThe decrease in the number of adolescents showing genuine interest in the fields of healthcare has been one of the recent concerns worldwide. A plethora of studies have discussed the factors that influence career choices of high school students, including science educational pedagogies, gender, environment, the student’s cognitive capabilities, and social perceptions of occupations being gender-based. As reported in 2012, a majority of the Qatari high-school students have shown a greater interest in business, technological, and administrative careers and a lower interest in healthcare. Comprehensive national and institutional strategies have since been utilized to direct the interest of Qatari generation toward healthcare careers.ObjectiveThe primary objective of this case-control study is to assess the effect of schooling type on the enrollment in the Empower Generations (EG) career training in healthcare at the Qatar University. The secondary objectives are: (1) to describe the effect of initial career interest on the EG and healthcare majors composite’s enrollments and (2) assess the association between the history of enrollment in EG and university GPAs.MethodThis is a case-control study that utilized the Qatar University’s enrollment databases for the health professions majors, that is, Health Sciences, Medicine, Pharmacy, and Dentistry. The datasets were collected from the registration records between 2013 and 2020. The statistical analysis was performed on the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 26; the study used Chi-Square Test and Independence and logistic regression to assess the effect of schooling type and initial career interest on the enrollment in the EG training at the Qatar University. All statistics were tested for p = 0.05 and 95% CI.ResultsTotal QU-Health records of admissions from 2013 to 2020 involve 562 eligible students. A total of 180 students (32%) attended EG training before they were admitted to QU-Health, whereas a total of 382 (68%) were enrolled to QU-Health without attending EG training. The study revealed significant findings regarding the association between EG training and international schools (p < 0.001). Among the group who attended EG training, there were 63 students (75%) who reported that they did not have an initial career interest before they joined the EG training compared to 21 students (25%) reported that they did not have an initial career interest but enrolled immediately to healthcare majors. The findings indicate insignificant association between the history of EG training and the high school percentage p = 0.397. However, the association between a history of EG training and the university’s GPA is significant, with a p < 0.001, OR 5.016 (2.954–8.518).ConclusionThe study has shown significant association between the EG training enrollment and the type of school and the initial career interest of high school students. The EG training is perceived to direct the interest of high school students toward the careers of healthcare and is thought to enhance the performance of college students through their university’s GPAs.

Here, we describe the preliminary results of the Proactive Detection Program, a collaboration between the Saudi Center for Organ Transplantation (the national organ donation and transplant supervising center) and intensive care units of donating hospitals. With its success in Saudi Arabia, it is hoped that it will be widely adopted in other regions.

Introduction: Diarrhea is the passage of three or more watery stool in a period of 24 hours (WHO, 2013). Types of diarrhea include acute watery diarrhea, acute bloody diarrhea known as dysentery and persistent diarrhea (WHO, 2013). It is caused by an infection of different pathogens including bacteria, viruses and parasites through fecal–oral transmission (WHO, 2013). Moreover, it can also be caused by food intolerance to certain food substances and as a side effect of certain medications such as laxatives (Burton & Ludwig, 2015). Diarrhea occurrence is most frequently associated with conditions of poor environmental sanitation and hygiene, poverty, inadequate water supply and limited education (Nelson & Masters, 2014). Worldwide, acute diarrhea disease is considered as the second cause of mortality and morbidity in children according to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2013). In 2012, WHO reported 1.9 million diarrheal cases in children aged under the age of five accounting for 18% of all deaths. The clinical manifestations of diarrhea in pediatric patients include abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and fever (WGO, 2012 & Maas et al., 2014). Diarrhea in children can lead to many consequences such as malnutrition, diminished growth and impaired cognitive development (WGO, 2012). Severe diarrhea can also result in life-threatening dehydration (Galvao et al., 2013). Thus it is important to replace the fluid and electrolytes by oral rehydration solution. Diarrhea is usually self-limiting. However, in cases of diarrhea persisting for longer than 1 week, broad-spectrum antimicrobial agents are administered to treat bacterial and parasitic infection (Koletzko & Osterrieder, 2009). Intestinal protozoa that are most commonly associated with diarrhea in children include Blastocyst, Dientamoeba fragilis, Giardia lamblia, Cryptosporidium species and Entamoeba species (Maas et al., 2014). Having updated information about the prevalence of these protozoan parasitic infections will aid in faster diagnosis and thus treatment. - Research question and objectives: Research Question: What are the most common protozoa and the risk factors for diarrhea in children under the age of 15 admitted to Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC). Objectives: To identify the prevalence of protozoa pathogen and the risk factors such as gender, age, season and geographical region associated with diarrhea in children. Materials and methods: Study subjects and sample collection: A total of 391 Diarrheal stool samples were collected from March-July 2015 in a sterile container from pediatrics patients (0- 15 years) admitted to HMC with diarrhea. The samples were transported on ice by Dr. Abu Madi's research group and frozen immediately at -70 °C. All required ethical approvals for the project were obtained from Medical Research Centre. - Stool examination: To recover the DNA of the enteric pathogens samples were thawed at +4 °C and 200 mg of the stool sample where weighed in a sterile 14 ml Falcon tube (BD Falcon). DNA was extracted using QIagen miniamp stool kit (Qiagen, Germany) following manufacturer's instructions with minor modifications. The extracted DNA samples were analyzed by uniplex real-time PCR using Applied Biosystems Cycler 7500. The protocol of the available literature has been used as a starting point. However, it was finalized by optimizing the concentrations of primer and probes and evaluating several cycles. The two different fluorescence reporters were used in which SYBR Green was used for Blastocyst, and TaqMan probe was used for D. fragilis, G. lamblia, Cryptosporidium and Entamoeba. For both reporters, Amplification reactions were performed in a 20 μL volume for each well with 17.5 master mix and and 2.5 DNA template. However, the mastermix of SYBR Green consist of 10 μL SYBR Green Mastermix reagent (Qiagen, Germany), 2.2 μL of primer mix, and 5 μL of PCR grade water H2O (Sigma, Germany). Whereas, Taqman reaction consists of 10 μL HotStar Taq Mastermix reagent (Qiagen, Germany), 1.3 μL of primer mix, 0.07 μL of probe and 6.2 of PCR grade water H2O (Sigma, Germany). The initial incubation step is carried out at 95 °C for 15 min to activate the HotStar Taq DNA polymerase, followed by a 40-cycle amplification program consisting of 15 s at 94 °C, 30s at 57 °C, 30s at 72 °C, and a final extension step at 72 °C for 30s. For each plate, internal positive controls were run consisted of positive samples brought from Hamad medical cooperation (HMC). Definition of variables: All Birth dates and collection dates were recorded and the ages of the subjects were categorized into five classes by years, 1.1-1.9, 2.0-4.9, 5.0-9.9 and 10.0-14.9. The collection dates were classified according to the season into summer (May-October) and winter (November-April). The subjects in this study came from 34 different countries. For the purpose of analysis, the subjects were grouped into four geographical groups. These were as follows: Qatar (N =  97), from three countries in the Arabian Peninsula (N = 16, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain); from five countries in the Eastern Mediterranean (N = 41, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran); from 7 countries in Asia (N = 131, India, Pakistan, Sri lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Mauritania, Philippines); from 7 countries in Africa (N =  86, Nigeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Sudan, Djibouti, Eritrea, Moroccan); from 10 countries in Europe (N = 20, Canada, Poland, UK, Greek, US, Holland, Spain, Italy, Venezuela, France) Statistical analysis: Prevalence data are shown with 95% confidence limits calculated using (https://www.mccallum-layton.co.uk). For determining the significance of different classes in each category, chi-square test was conducted using crosstabs descriptive statistics in IBM SPSS software. A p-value less than 0.05 is considered statistically significant. Results: Screening for gastrointestinal pathogens using multiplex RT-PCR A total of 391 pediatrics patients participated in this study during the period of March-July 2015. Out of the 391 diarrheal patients (173 females and 218 males), 41 (10.7%) were positive for at least one protozoa (Table 1 and 2). Blastocyst was detected most frequently, in 4.1% (16/391), followed by D. fragilis in 3.3% (13/391), Cryptosporidium in 2.8% (11/391), G. lamblia in 2.0 (8/391) and Entamoeba histolytica in 0.3% (1/391) (Table 1). Most of diarrhea samples in the study came from the age group of 0-1 year (119/391) followed by 2-4.9 years (108/391), 1.1-1.9 years (105/391), 5-9.9 years (45/391) and 10-14.9 years (14/391) (Table 2). However, protozoa infections were highest at the age group of 5-9.9 years with a prevalence of 21.1% (Table 2 and Fig. 1). Blastocyst and Cryptosporidium showed the same pattern of infections among the age groups with the highest prevalence at the age group 5-9.9 years (Table 2). Whereas, G. lamblia and D. fragilis showed the highest prevalence among the age group of 10-14.9 (Table 2). Females had a higher prevalence than males in infections with Blastocyst (6.4%), Cryptosporidium (4.0%) and G. lamblia (2.9%) (Table 2 and Fig. 2). Whereas, males had a higher prevalence than females in infections with D. fragilis (4.1) and Entamoeba histolytica (0.5%). A total of 34 countries categorized into 6 geoprahical regions were sampled in this study, but most of them were from Asia, Qatar & Africa regions (Table 2). However, the prevelance of protozoa infections was the highest among Europe (15%), followed by Qatar (14.1%), Arabian Peninsula (12.5%), Asia (9.9%), Africa (8.1%) and Eastern mediterean (7.3%). Most of the diarrheal samples were collected during the summer season from May to July (Table 2 and Fig. 3). However, protozoa infections had an overall higher prevalence during the winter season that is March and April (12.5%) (Table 2 and Fig. 4).- Association of protozoa infections with age, gender, geographical distribution and seasonAlthough, most of the variables (i.e. gender, age, season) have shown a high value in one of the categories, the difference was not statistically significant (p>0.05) (Table 2). The only significant variables were the age in combined, Blastocyst and Cryptosporidium infections and the gender in Blastocyst (p < 0.05) (Table 2). Blastocyst and Cryptosporidium infections affects the combined protozoa infections and have both the highest prevalence among the age group of 5-9.9 years with the prevalence of 15.6 and 11.1 respectively (Table 2). Blastocyst infections in Females have higher prevalence than male with a prevalence of 6.4% (Table 1). Conclusion: This study has demonstrated that protozoa parasitic infections are still a public health problem in pediatrics patients with Blastocyst, Dientamoeba fragilis and Cryptosporidium being the most common respectively. Therefore, protozoa parasitic infections should be tested for in children complaining from diarrhea. The study also highlights the use of molecular techniques in diagnosis of protozoa parasitic infections.