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Introduction: Father's involvement is essential for the successful immunization of the child, as man is the head of the family and he takes responsibility for all decisions including health and financial issues. This study aimed to assess the knowledge of fathers, uptake of routine immunization (RI), and its associated factors in a rural community of North West Nigeria. Materials and Methods: The study was a community-based cross-sectional study conducted among the male heads of households residing in a rural community of Sokoto state. Systematic sampling was used to recruit 276 respondents. Data were obtained using a structured interviewer-administered questionnaire. Data obtained was entered into the IBM Software package and subsequently analyzed. Level of significance was set at 5%. Results: Only 2.5% and 1.4% of the respondents knew the age measles and yellow fever vaccines were given, respectively. Majority (75.4%) of the respondents' last-born child did not receive bacillus Calmette-Guérin at birth. Only (7.6%) of their last-born child were completely immunized for age. Majority of the respondents that had poor knowledge of RI had no formal education ( P = 0.043). Conclusion: The study reported the knowledge of RI among fathers was poor. Having formal education and perception that children should be allowed to receive RI were correlates of good knowledge and uptake of RI. Parents, fathers, in particular, should be educated on the schedule of RI.

Introduction: Enterobacteriaceae such as Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae are the most prominent bacterial species resistant to almost all commonly used antibiotics. Carbapenem is one of the last resort drugs for treating such emerging multidrug-resistant bacteria. This study aimed to detect carbapenem-resistant blaNDM-1 gene in ESBL producing E. coli and K. pneumoniae isolates. Methodology: A total of 190 E. coli and 350 K. pneumoniae isolates were screened for extended spectrumβ-lactamase (ESBL), carbapenemase and metallo β-lactamase (MBL) production via double-disk synergy test (DDST), modified Hodge test and combined-disk diffusion method. The blaNDM-1 gene was detected by PCR and confirmed via Sanger sequencing method. Results: Of the 540 isolates tested, 71.8% were found to be multidrug-resistant. Overall rate of ESBL-positive isolates were 57.89% E. coli and 31.42% K. pneumoniae. Among ESBL positive isolates, 49.09% E. coli and 40% K. pneumoniae were positive for carbapenemase production whereas MBL production was detected in 29% E. coli and 22% K. pneumoniae isolates. In MBL positive isolates, (37%) E. coli and (40%) K. pneumoniae isolates harboured blaNDM-1 gene. The pair-wise DNA was aligned with the NDM-1 sequence from GenBank. The alignment score was 243 and the blast nucleotide sequencing results showed 97% sequence similarity with the sequences in GenBank for the blaNDM-1 gene. Conclusions: The blaNDM-1 gene was found to be the most prevalent in urine samples. There is a dire need to conduct screening tests in hospitals and communities to find out the exact prevalence of the blaNDM-1 spread in our population.

Background: The presence of plasmid mediated mcr-1 gene in multidrug resistant Gram-negative bacteria poses a serious public health concern in today’s world. Objectives: The present study was aimed to detect the presence of plasmid mediated mcr-1 encoding resistance to colistin in multiple drug resistant (MDR) E. coli and K. pneumoniae isolates. Methods: A total 180 clinical isolates of E. coli (n=120) and K. pneumoniae (n=60) were isolated from different clinical specimens i.e. urine, blood, stool and pus, from diagnostic labs of two major public sector tertiary care hospitals in Peshawar, Pakistan. MDR profile of these isolates was assessed through Kirby-Baur disc diffusion method. All isolates were screened for colistin resistance by dilution methods. Colistin resistant isolates were subjected to PCR for mcr-1 detection and confirmation was done by Sanger sequencing method. Results: Overall 83.3% (100/120) E. coli and 93.3% (56/60) K. pneumoniae were detected as MDR. Colistin resistance was found in 23.3% (28/120) E. coli and 40% (24/60) K. pneumoniae isolates whereas mcr-1 gene was detected in 10 out of 52 colistin resistant isolates including six E. coli and four K. pneumoniae isolates. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of colistin in these ten mcr-1 positive isolates ranged from 4µg/ml to 16µg/ml. All mcr-1 positive isolates showed 99% sequence similarity when compared with other present sequences in GenBank. Conclusion: Hence, our study confirms the presence of mcr-1 mediated colistin resistance in the studied area. Therefore, urgently larger scale surveillance studies are recommended to investigate prevalence of mcr-1 mediated colistin resistance and to prevent its further spread in the area.

Serotyping characterization and antimicrobial susceptibility of Salmonella clinical isolates were examined for a period of 10-months to study the most frequently encountered serovars in salmonellosis and their antimicrobial susceptibility patterns. Seven hundred and twenty (720) samples of both stool and blood specimens were collected from out patients attending three hospitals in Katsina State, Nigeria. The samples were collected from patients diagnosed by clinicians with either pyrexia, gastroenteritis or both. Samples were cultured; isolates were identified and antibiotic susceptibility test was performed using standard procedures. The total number of 108 (15%) of the 720 samples collected yielded positive for Salmonella strains. Out of the 108 isolates, 61 (56.5%) were responsible for typhoidal salmonellosis, while 47(43.5%) were responsible for non-typhoidal salmonellosis. Of the 108 cases of salmonellosis, 91(84.3%) were from children and 17(15.7%) from adults. S. Typhi (40.7%) was the most frequently encountered, followed by S. Enteritidis (26.9%) and least encountered was S. Arizonae (2.8%). There was no significant difference in the serotypes isolated from each of the hospitals with respect to the type of salmonellosis caused with their p values > 0.05. Of the total isolates, 94.2% were found to be resistant to ampicillin, 22.2% resistant to cefotaxime, 72.8% resistant to chloramphenicol, 31.8% resistant to co-trimoxazole and 4.9% resistant to nalidixic acid. However, resistance to ofloxacin and ciprofloxacin by the isolates were not found. Therefore, ofloxacin and ciprofloxacin remains the drug of choice for severe cases of salmonellosis, although caution should be exercised by clinicians in their prescriptions such that fluoroquinolones antibiotic therapy is used only in laboratory-proven cases of typhoid fever and Salmonella-associated bacteraemia to preserve its efficacy.