Polluted water samples collected from the River Tigris in the vicinity of a raw sewage outfall were examined for the incidence of antibiotic resistance among coliform bacteria on three occasions during 1983. Eighty percent or more of the coliform bacteria were resistant to one or more antibiotics. At the same time, raw sewage samples were examined for the incidence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas spp. and Staphylococcus spp. were selected for sensitivity testing. Collectively, more than 90% of the 480 strains of the three organisms were resistant to one or more antibiotics. The minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of ampicillin for twenty-nine strains including coliforms, E. coli, Klebsiella sp., Serratia sp., Ps. aeruginosa, Pseudomonas sp., Micrococcus sp., Staph. aureus, Streptococcus faecalis and Bacillus sp. from raw sewage and polluted River Tigris water was determined and that for Ps. aeruginosa was 250 micrograms/ml. The high incidence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in natural waters could be related to the widespread use of antibiotics in this locality.

Objectives: The main objective of this study was to investigate the bacterial infections of urinary tract in patients with urolithiasis. The patients were referred to and/or visiting the Urology Department in Tikrit Teaching Hospital in Tikrit city. Methods: The present study was carried out from November 2011 until July 2012. One hundred and sixty patients with urolithiasis were included in the present study whose ages ranged from 12 to 70 years. Male to female ratio was almost 2:1. The control group consisted of two groups; group one consisted of 40 persons (20 males and 20 females) who were selected randomly from Tikrit city during the period of this study and they had no previous personal nor family history of urolithiasis, while group two consist of 40 persons (20 males and 20 females) infected with urinary tract infection. Urine culture was done for all the patients and the control group. Results: Forty five percent (45/160) of these had UTI’s. Six patients revealed mixed bacterial growth. Eighty-four percent (38/45) of patients with UTI were infected with gram negative organisms where as only 16% (7/45) of patients were infected with gram positive organisms. The majority of the gram negative bacteria isolated belonged to the family Enterobacteriaceae particularly E. coli as it was isolated from 14 (31%) cases. The urease producing bacteria were isolated from 31 cases (50%). Conclusions: UTI’s in urolithiasis was more frequent in females than males and the percentages were 28/45 and 17/45 respectively. The most effective antimicrobial agent was amikacin and the least effective one was ampicillin, whereas ciprofloxacin, cefoxitin, levofloxacin, nitrofurantoin, nalidixic acid, chloramphenicol, amoxycillin and gentamicin were effective at different levels.

A total of 600 isolates of Escherichia coli were isolated, over a 9 month period during 1984, from healthy human adults, raw sewage and the sewage-polluted River Tigris in Nineva. Over 90% of these organisms were E. coli type 1, but only 8.3% could be serogrouped as enteropathogenic E. coli. Resistance of these organisms to 11 antimicrobial drugs was assessed. Over 40% were antibiotic-resistant and of these 77.1% were resistant to more than one antibiotic. The minimal inhibitory concentration of ampicillin for 193 selected strains from the various sources was determined and ranged from less than 0.625-greater than 160 micrograms/ml. The high incidence of antibiotic-resistant E. coli in this locality and the possible implications to human health are discussed.

Objectives: Toxoplasma gondii is a ruthless intracellular parasite belonging to Coccidae. Toxoplasmosis is a disease affecting 500 million people worldwide. The seroprevalence varies from 5% to 90% depending on geographical location, age, habit of eating, raw meat or unwashed fruit and vegetables, and general level of hygiene. The objective of the current study was to assess the prevalence of this parasitic disease which lately seems to be elevated generally in Iraq and particularly in the middle and northern Iraq. A prospective study was carried out on females which attended public hospitals complaining of abortion and/ or infertility during 2009. Methods: We collected blood samples from the female patients to detect the presence of specific antibodies of Toxoplasma gondii utilizing direct agglutination test which was compared with ELISA techniques for evaluations of their testing sensitivity. The history of all patients was taken particularly abortion and marriage periods with and/ or without children with the family. Results: Direct latex agglutination test and ELISA methodology gave almost the same results when both were utilized for the detection of the toxoplasmosis in the sera of the women examined. A high frequency of toxoplasmosis incidence was seen among women with one abortion group which happen during their marital life. Conclusions: It was concluded that the high prevalence of toxoplasmosis among the investigated high risk women at Al-Hawija and at Al-Baiji districts is due to many risk factors including age, number of deliveries, contact with host animals. This disease was elevated after Iraq occupation with a frequency of infection more than 40% compared to eighties of Iraqi life which was the frequency of the infected women with toxoplas-mosis which did not exceed 2% of the women tested at that time by our laboratories.

The dissected digestive tract of edible mussels from two sites was examined for Escherichia coli and the counts compared with those from the total tissue of parallel mussel samples. The method using 4 x 1 ml pour plates was preferred to the 1 x 4 ml pour plate or to the 2 x 0.2 ml spread plates. Counts from the digestive tract were up to sixfold higher than parallel counts using total tissue. Digestive tract inoculum also produced amplified Esch. coli detection when lightly polluted mussels were examined by the semi‐quantitative percentage‐clean technique. It was concluded that dissection of the bacteriologically rich digestive tract significantly increases the sensitivity of Esch. coli detection and has application in environmental assay procedures using mussels or other filter‐feeding molluscs. Significant differences in the frequency of Esch. coli biotypes from the two mussel locations could be related to small differences in the pollution regimes at these two sites.