Background and objectives: Health systems all over the world are confronted with an alarming rise of cases in which individuals hesitate, delay, and even refuse vaccination, despite availability of quality vaccine services. In order to mitigate and combat this phenomenon, which are now defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as vaccine hesitancy (VH), we must first understand the factors that lead to its occurrence in an era characterized by wide access to safe and effective vaccines. To achieve this, we conducted field testing of the Vaccine Hesitancy Scale (VHS), as it was developed by the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts Working Group (SAGE WG), in Cluj-Napoca city, Cluj County, Romania. The scale is designed to quantify VH prevalence in a population, establish which vaccines generate the highest percentage of hesitancy, and allow a qualitative assessment of the individual’s reasons for hesitance. Materials and Methods: We conducted an observational cross-sectional survey, which was comprised of descriptive, analytical, and qualitative elements regarding VH. The necessary sample size was 452 individuals. The VHS and Matrix of Determinants (recommended by SAGE WG) for reasons people gave to justify their hesitance, was interpreted by qualitative thematic analysis (QTA) to ensure the validity and reliability in detecting hesitancy across various cultural settings and permit global comparisons. Results: We found a VH of 30.3% and 11.7% of parents reported refusing to vaccinate their child. Among the VH responders, the varicella vaccine generated 35% hesitancy, measles vaccine 27.7%, Human Papillomavirus (HPV) 24.1%, and mumps vaccine 23.4%, respectively. The QTA values for percent agreement ranged from 91% to 100%. Cohen’s Kappa values ranged from 0.45 to 0.95. Contextual influences identified for VH were "media," "leaders and lobbies," and "perception of the pharmaceutical industry." Individual and group influences for VH were "beliefs," "knowledge," and "risk/benefits (perceived).” Vaccine and vaccination specific issues for VH were "risk/benefit (rational)" and "health care practitioners (trustworthiness, competence).” Conclusions: One-third of the investigated population had expressed VH, and a further one-third of these had refused a vaccine for their child. Chicken Pox, Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR), and HPV vaccines generated the most hesitation. Negative information from the media was the most frequently evoked reason for VH.

Sleep is intrinsically tied to mental and overall health. Short sleep duration accompanies the modern lifestyle, possibly reaching epidemic proportions. The pandemic and subsequent lockdowns determined a fundamental shift in the modern lifestyle and had profound effects on sleep and mental health. This paper aims to provide an overview of the relationship between sleep, mental health and COVID-19. Contrasting outcomes on sleep health have been highlighted by most reports during the pandemic in the general population. Consequently, while longer sleep durations have been reported, this change was accompanied by decreases in sleep quality and altered sleep timing. Furthermore, an increased impact of sleep deficiencies and mental health burden was generally reported in health care workers as compared with the adult general population. Although not among the most frequent symptoms during the acute or persistent phase, an increased prevalence of sleep deficiencies has been reported in patients with acute and long COVID. The importance of sleep in immune regulation is well known. Consequently, sleep deficiencies may influence multiple aspects of COVID-19, such as the risk, severity, and prognosis of the infection and even vaccine response.

A series of new 1,3,4-oxadiazole/thiadiazole and 1,2,4-triazole derivatives have been synthesized starting from 2-aryl-4-methylthiazol-5-carbohydrazides and isonicotinic acid hydrazide. All the newly synthesized compounds were characterized by IR, 1 H NMR, 13 C NMR, and mass spectrometry. The synthesized compounds were screened for their antibacterial and antifungal activity, assessed as growth inhibition diameter. Some of them showed good antibacterial activity against gram positive Staphylococcus aureus, while the antibacterial activity against Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli, and Salmonella typhymurium and antifungal activity against Candida albicans was modest. None of the tested compounds showed inhibitory activity against gram positive bacteria Enterococcus faecalis and Bacillus cereus and against gram negative bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Background: Giardia duodenalis is one of the most prevalent and highly diverse human parasites, encompassing a complex of eight genetically distinct assemblages, each further divided into sub-assemblages. While in recent years, G. duodenalis genotype distribution patterns in humans have been intensely studied, there is still very little information available on the diversity of Giardia genotypes and sub-assemblages infecting people in Romania. In the present study, we investigated the genetic diversity of Giardia duodenalis in asymptomatic patients from Romania. Methods: Over an 11-month period, human feces from 7805 healthy adults were screened by microscopic analysis for G. duodenalis cysts during their obligatory periodic checkups. DNA extraction was performed from microscopicpositive fecal samples, followed by multilocus sequence typing of four genetic loci of the ITS region, gdh, tpi and bg genes, followed by DNA sequencing and phylogenetic analysis. Statistical analysis was performed using EpiInfo 2000 software. Results: The prevalence of giardiasis in the present study was 0.42% (33/7805). Twenty-three samples (76.67%) were successfully genotyped at each locus. The bg and tpi genes had the highest typing success rate (100%). The identified assemblages were assemblage A in 27 cases (subtypes A2 and A3), and B in 3 cases. Conclusions: To our knowledge, the present study is the first report of multilocus sequence typing of G. duodenalis isolated from humans in Romania. The present results may shed light on G. duodenalis infection in humans at a regional and national level, thus increasing awareness against this parasitic infection.

We compared the E-test method to that of the Neo-Sensitabs tablet diffusion assay for evaluating the in vitro susceptibility of 100 clinical isolates of filamentous fungi (Aspergillus spp., Fusarium spp., Scedosporium spp., zygomycetes and other molds) to amphotericin B, itraconazole, voriconazole, caspofungin, and posaconazole. We determined the categorical agreement level between E-test minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) and tablet end-points, as opposed to the following disagreement parameters: very major error - resistant parameter (R) in E-test and susceptible (S) in tablet; major error - S by E-test and R by tablet; minor error - shifts between S and susceptible dose-dependent (S-DD) or S-DD and R. We also performed linear regression analyses and computed Pearson's correlation coefficients (R values) between the log transforms of MICs and the inhibition zone diameters of the five studied antifungal agents. For itraconazole we obtained 97% categorical agreement and R = -0.727. Categorical agreement for caspofungin and voriconazole was 96% and R =-0.821 and R = -0.789, respectively. For posaconazole the categorical agreement was 94% and R =-0.743. Amphotericin B exhibited a lower degree of agreement (76%, R = -0.672), especially in studies of Aspergillus spp. Our results suggest a potential value of the Neo-Sensitabs assay for in vitro susceptibility testing of molds to itraconazole, voriconazole, caspofungin and posaconazole, while amphotericin B exhibited an overall lower degree of agreement.