BackgroundClinical laboratory workers face biohazard such as needlestick injury and occupational infection on a daily basis. In this study, we examined self-reported frequency of occupational infection and needlestick injury among the clinical laboratory workers in Al- Madinah, Saudi Arabia.MethodsA total of 234 clinical laboratory workers were recruited from private and government health sectors to answer a self-administered questionnaire that was prepared to achieve the aims of the study.ResultsThe results showed that approximately 33% of the sample had an experienced occupational infection while 24% had experienced a needlestick injury. Approximately, 49% reported that they always recap needle after use, whereas 15% reported doing that most of the times. Occupational infection, needlestick injury and recapping needles after use were associated with lack of training on biosafety (P < 0.05).ConclusionThe frequency of occupational infection and needlestick injury among clinical laboratory workers in Al-Madinah is high. Interventions related to biosafety and infection control and the use of needlestick prevention devices might be useful in lowering such frequency.

Introduction: Workers in clinical laboratories are exposed to occupational hazards on a daily basis and their health and safety may be threatened if appropriate protective standards are not implemented. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge and practices of clinical laboratory workers towards biosafety measures, in Al-Madinah city, Saudi Arabia. Methodology: Clinical laboratory staff was recruited from both the public and private sectors. A structured self-administered questionnaire was used to achieve the aim of the study. Results: A total of 208 workers participated in the study (64% were males, 57% were from the public sector and 71% held a BSc degree). About 68% of the workers were trained in laboratory safety. The majority (> 80%) followed guidelines for disposing medical wastes, decontamination of sample spills, and use of protective lab coats, gloves, etc. However, among participants, 24.2% used to eat, drink or use gum, 18.3% used cosmetics and 24.6% used the mobile phone in the lab. About 18.4% reported that they continued working with a finger cut, whereas 67% reported that they used to recap needles after blood withdrawal. These unacceptable behaviors were associated with lack of lab safety training (P < 0.05), biology degree holders (P < 0.05), and low experience (3 years and less, P < 0.01). With respect to facilities, most of the laboratories complied with standard safety measures. Conclusion: The majority of the sample showed good laboratory practices with respect to safety measures. However, some behaviors are not accepted and need interventions

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In addition to its nutritive value, there are ample studies regarding the me-dicinal properties of the mushroom Pleurotus ostreatus fruit bodies. Howev-er, finding such medicinal activities from submerged mycelium culture will be of considerable interest. The present study aimed to determine the antioxidant and immunomodulating activities of P. ostreatus mycelial extract. The scavenger activity was determined using DPPH, while the im-munomodulating activity was determined by measuring the in vitro prolifer-ative capacity of murine splenocytes as well as the phenotypic and matura-tion of bone marrow dendritic cells (BMDCs). The present results showed increases in the scavenging activity of P. ostreatus mycelial extract compared to ascorbic acid control group, and increases in the proliferative capacity of murine splenocytes compared to vehicle control, except with the higher con-centration. In addition, BMDCs stimulated with P. ostreatus mycelial extract elicited increases in surface expression of CD11c+and CD80, suggesting that P. ostreatus treatment directly induces BMDCs to mature. These results re-vealed considerable antioxidant and immunomodulating effects of P. os-treatus mycelium suggesting its potential application as an immunomodu-lating agent in pharmaceutical, nutritional complement and even medical studies.

Medicinal plants have been widely used in folk medicine. They are considered today as an interesting source of new drug due to their bioactive components. The genus, Cymbopogon (Poaceae) seems to be the most promising source of several bioactive compound. This study aimed at evaluating the antimicrobial activities of Cymbopogon schoenanthus on several pathogenic bacteria, fungi and virus. Antibacterial and antifungal activities were evaluated using the agar well diffusion methods. The MIC was determined by micro-broth dilution methods. The cytotoxicity of C. schoenanthus extracts was evaluated using MTT assay. The results showed that methanol extract of C. schoenanthus exhibit an antibacterial effect on several Gram-positive and negative bacteria. All extracts tested (aqueous extract, methanol extract and ethyl acetate extract) were found to have an antiviral effect on HSV1; whereas, no antifungal effect was detected on both Candida albicans and Aspergillus niger.

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a mosquito-borne alpha virus, which belongs to the family, Togaviridae. This virus is known to cause an acute onset of high fever, severe arthralgia and rash, and is usually accompanied by headache and severe joint pain. The present study aimed to construct an updated phylogenetic tree of currently published data and perform a phylogeographic analysis of Chikungunya virus obtained during different outbreak in the last five years after the re-emerging of chikungunya virus to get further insight into the epidemiology and transmission of CHIKV. In this study, twenty two sequences from the E1envelope glycoprotein gene were aligned using ClustalW software program. A phylogenetic tree was constructed by using MEGA 5 software version 6, to determine the phylogenetic relationships of CHIKV during different outbreak recently in Yemen, Italy, Philippines, India and Africa. An updated phylogenetic tree was constructed, the results obtained suggested that CHIKV strains isolated recently in the Eastern Mediterranean Region share high similarity with chikungunya virus isolated in Tanzania in 1953.