Molecular methods which can identify extensive mutations associated with multiple anti-tuberculous drugs are in urgent need so that the research on drug resistant mutations should be extended.

According to the updates in the review, it can be concluded artemisinin resistance does not disseminate to India and African countries within short period whereas regular tracking of these mutants is necessary.

No abstract

This study revealed that V.cholerae in Sabah were genetically diverse and were atypical El Tor strains. Fingerprint patterns of these isolates will be useful in tracing the origin of this pathogen in the future.

The incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) can be reduced by preventing transmission with rapid and precise case detection and early treatment. The Gene-Xpert MTB/RIF assay is a useful tool for detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) with rifampicin resistance within approximately two hours by using a nucleic acid amplification technique. This study was designed to reduce the underdiagnosis of smear-negative pulmonary TB and to assess the clinical and radiological characteristics of PTB patients. This cross-sectional study included 235 participants who went to the Luyang primary health care clinic from September 2016 to June 2017. The demographic data were analyzed to investigate the association of patient gender, age group, and ethnicity by chi-square test. To assess the efficacy of the diagnostic test, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and accuracy were calculated. The area under the curve for sputum for both AFB and gene-Xpert was analyzed to compare their accuracy in diagnosing TB. In this study, TB was more common in males than in females. The majority (50.71%) of the cases belonged to the 25–44-year-old age group and the Bajau ethnicity (57.74%). Out of 50 pulmonary TB cases (smear-positive with AFB staining), 49 samples were positive according to the Gene-Xpert MTB/RIF assay and was confirmed by MTB culture. However, out of 185 smear-negative presumptive cases, 21 cases were positive by Gene-Xpert MTB/RIF assay in that a sample showed drug resistance, and these results were confirmed by MTB culture, showing resistance to isoniazid. In comparison to sputum for AFB, Gene-Xpert showed more sensitivity and specificity with almost complete accuracy. The additional 21 PTB cases detection from the presumptive cases by GeneXpert had significant impact compared to initial observation by the routine tests which overcame the diagnostic challenges and ambiguities.

Toxigenic strains of Vibrio cholerae serogroup O1 and O139 are causative agents of deadly diarrheal disease named cholera. Vibrio cholerae O1 is traditionally divided into two biotypes, classical and El Tor, which are different in phenotypic as well as genotypic traits. Since 1961, classical strains of Vibrio cholerae O1 serogroup has become obsolete as the cause of epidemic and pandemic cholera and replaced by El Tor strains. Since 2002, atypical O1 El Tor strains possessing the traits of classical strains have been increasingly recognized as the cause of cholera in many countries across the world. This article focuses on the genetic traits of O1 classical and El Tor strains. Furthermore, an overview of emergence of atypical O1 El Tor strains and their genetic traits is presented

Out of bacteria which cause food –borne infections, enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) is well known to be pathogen causing serious outbreaks. The first outbreak of EHEC infection occurred in 1982 was due to ingestion of hamburger at restaurant. A rare Escherichia coli serotype, 0157:H7 was isolated at that time and the following outbreaks were mostly due to this serotype. However, O26, O111 and O104 were also responsible for EHEC outbreaks. Enterohemorrhagic E. coli is an important food and water-borne pathogen. Verotoxins (VTs) produced by this pathogen causes painful hemorrhagic colitis along with major complications of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). The morbidity and significantly high mortality and enormous economic loss are problematic to the health care administrators and EHEC infection is a serious public health issue. Another factor which makes it high transmissibility is the low infectious dose. The German O104:H4 epidemic was caused by the pathogen carrying a combination of virulence genes derived from two well-known pathogens, EHEC and enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC). There is a possibility that two mobile DNA elements can occur again in this versatile pathogen. In this article, some aspects of EHEC infections which were established but not well known to the medical personals were explained to get understanding of why this infection should not be overlooked and should be under surveillance.

Emergence of multidrug resistant multiple drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and extensively drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) is one of the reasons why Tuberculosis (TB) continues to cause great mortality and morbidity in less-developed countries. The development of rapid diagnostic methods targeting genetic mutations associated with resistance to the anti-tuberculous drugs is essential to fight this deadly pathogen. Isoniazid (INH) has been included in the multidrug regimens for the treatment of drug-susceptible TB for the decades. In the world wide setting, isoniazid resistance was highly prevalent and was observed in one of every seven TB cases. Because katG315 mutation is highly prevalent, the common mutation in the enzyme essential for the activation of the INH concerned with the mechanism of drug resistance and associated with high level resistance to INH, katG315 mutation was necessary to be identified by molecular method as a molecular determinant of INH resistant M. tuberculosis. The prevalence of katG315 mutation in various countries was discussed in this report and a new molecular method for the detection of the mutation was proposed.