Background:Pneumonia is the biggest single cause of childhood death under the age of 5 years, and anemia affects approximately 30% of infants and children all over the world.Aim:Determination of the relationship between anemia and lower respiratory tract infection as a risk factor in Lebanese children.Patients and Methods:A total number of two hundred infants and children aged nine months to twelve years were included; One hundred cases were hospitalized for lower respiratory tract infection in Department of Pediatrics, Makassed General Hospital, and one hundred healthy, age and sex matched controls, were selected from outpatient department. Complete blood count, iron level, ferritin level, and total iron binding capacity were taken if hemoglobin level less than eleven gram per deci-liter. In addition peripheral blood smear, chest radiograph and C-reactive protein were done to hospitalized cases. Definition of iron deficiency anemia and normal laboratory values were predetermined.Results:Anemia was found in 32% of hospitalized cases and 16% of healthy controls. Mean hemoglobin level was 9.99 ± 0.62 gram per deci-liter and 11.99 ± 0.92 gram per deci-liter in anemic and non-anemic group respectively with a significant P-value of 0.001. C-reactive protein levels and number hospitalization days were similar among the anemic and non-anemic group. History of recurrent chest infections was significantly higher in both anemic group and hospitalized cases compared to non-anemic group and healthy controls. Low hemoglobin level was a risk factor for lower respiratory tract infection with a P-value of 0.008.Conclusion:Anemic children were two times more susceptible to lower respiratory tract infection compared to the control group, and iron deficiency anemia was predominating. Accurate diagnosis and prevention of anemia, whatever its etiology, is essential.

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A new differential-fed wideband dual-polarized microstrip filtering antenna exhibiting high gain, and high common-mode rejection is presented in this paper. The presented antenna is composed of a square patch radiator mounted on a substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) cavity. The structure is excited by two differential pairs of feeding probes providing differentially exciting signals. The filtering response is achieved by introducing symmetrical defected ground structures (DGS) in the ground layer surrounding the four excitation ports for dual-polarized antenna. The DGS is optimized to introduce nulls at the high and low edges of the passband transmission maintaining high gain and wide bandwidth. Because of the symmetric geometry of the proposed antenna, the design is studied and analyzed in one polarization mode, while the performance for the second mode will be identical. The filtering antenna is simulated and optimized using finite element solver software (CST & HFSS). Good performance is obtained with wide bandwidth of 11%, realized gain of 8 dBi at the resonant frequency (3.5 GHz) and low crosspolarization level due to the differentially driven ports, and complete symmetry using SIW technology. Also, the antenna has a single layer substrate with a height of 0.035 of the free space wavelength and operating at the sub-6 GHz 5G spectrum.

In this paper, a new high-gain differential-fed dual-polarized microstrip filtering antenna with high commonmode rejection is presented. Two differential pairs of probe feeding ports are utilized to provide differentially exciting signals. The filtering response is achieved by introducing four symmetrical open-loop ring resonator slots on the top layer surrounding the four excitation ports of the patch antenna. The resonators can produce nulls at the low edge of the passband bandwidth with high gain and wide stopband characteristics.Because of the strictly symmetric configuration of the proposed antenna, the design is studied and analyzed only in one polarization configuration. Compared with other presented filtering antenna designs, the proposed design has not only high gain and dual-polarized characteristics but also introduces high efficiency and much lower cross-polarization level due to the differentially driven ports. The filtering antenna is designed, simulated and optimized using computer simulation technology (CST) software and is implemented on a Rogers TMM3 substrate with a relative dielectric constant of 3.45. Also, the antenna has a single layer substrate with a height of 0.035 of the free space wavelength and operating at 3.54 GHz for 5G applications.

Background: The first case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) reported in Basrah was in early March 2020. This study aimed at assessing some of the characteristics of patients with COVID-19 in Basrah during the period from March 4th to September 8th, 2020. Methods: Retrospective analysis of the University of Basrah database on COVID-19. All patients with positive COVID-19 reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test during the study period were enrolled. Results: Of 6404 patients included (males 54.8% and females 45.2%), healthcare workers constituted 11.4%. Physicians represented 16.1% of health care workers. The mean age was 39±16.7 years, those aged 61 years or more constituted 9.8%. The case fatality rate was 3% (males 55.2% and females 44.8%). No deaths were reported in adolescents or children. The highest death rate was among those aged 61 years or more. Conclusion: The situation of COVID-19 infection in Basrah, Iraq is evolving similar to other countries. Studies are needed to assess the influence of associated comorbidities, results of treatment regimens used and variables associated with high mortality.

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Background: The first case of COVID-19 report in Basrah was in early March 2020. This study aimed to assess some of the characteristics of patients with COVID-19 in Basrah for the period from March ,4th to September ,8th 2020. Methods: Retrospective database analysis of the University of Basrah database. All RT-PCR positive patients during the study period were enrolled. Results: Of 6404 patients included , male constituted 54.8%. Healthcare workers constituted 11.4% of the infected people. Of health care workers 16.1% were physicians . The mean age for the whole cohort was 39plus-or-minus sign16.7 years; adolescents and children younger than 20 years constituted 12.4%. The peak age was 31-40 years, those aged 61 years or more constituted 9.8% only. The case fatality rate was 3% (males 55.2% and females 44.8%) . No death was reported in adolescents or children. The highest death rate was among those age 61 years or more. Conclusion: The situation of COVID-19 infection in Basrah is evolving like other countries. Furthers studies are needed to assess associated comorbidities, treatment lines, outcomes and variables associated with mortality.

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