Introduction: Antimicrobial resistance is a serious global health concern. It has considerable implications on societies' health and resources. In Jordan, there is a large Iraqi community due to the ongoing turmoil in Iraq. Unfortunately, health awareness and practices of this community are under-investigated due to scarcity of research. This paper assesses the awareness of antibiotic use and antimicrobial resistance in the Iraqi community residing in Amman, Jordan. Their level of interaction with health care professionals regarding antibiotics and differences in their antibiotic use between Iraq and Jordan are also discussed. Methodology: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey involving randomly selected Iraqis residing in Amman, Jordan was conducted. Results: The study involved 508 participants. Sixty-two percent of participants agreed with buying antibiotics without a prescription, 29% agreed with obtaining antibiotics from friends or relatives, and 46% agreed with keeping leftover antibiotics for future use. Furthermore, 60% disagreed with not completing an antibiotic course and almost 90% of the sample listed viral diseases as an indication for antibiotics. Fortyfour percent of participants abided by physicians' instructions on antibiotic use. Half of the participants believed that pharmacists provided instructions on antibiotics all the time, whereas physicians were perceived to do so by 29% of participants. Conclusions: Gaps exist in knowledge of antibiotic use and reasons for antimicrobial resistance among Iraqis residing in Jordan. These gaps should serve in planning educational campaigns to raise the community's awareness of responsible antibiotic use. Law enforcement to restrict access to antibiotics is also pivotal to tackle their misuse.

Vitamin D is necessary for maintaining and regulating calcium levels; thus, insufficiency of vitamin D increases the risk of many chronic diseases. This study aimed to examine vitamin D levels among Jordanian and Iraqi volunteers and find the relation between vitamin D level and lipid profile patients. Vitamin D levels were evaluated using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. For young healthy group subjects, vitamin D levels were 20.60 ± 5.94 ng/mL for Jordanian and 27.59 ± 7.74 ng/mL for Iraqi. Vitamin D concentrations for young males and females were 25.82 ± 8.33 ng/mL and 21.95 ± 6.39 ng/mL, respectively. Females wearing hijab were 20.87 ± 6.45 ng/mL, while uncovered females were 23.55 ± 6.04 ng/mL. For >40 years Iraqi subjects, vitamin D level for healthy was 29.78 ± 9.49 ng/mL and 23.88 ± 7.93 ng/mL for hyperlipidemic subjects. Vitamin D levels for overweight and obese healthy groups were significantly higher (P < 0.050) than those for the hyperlipidemic patients groups. Vitamin D levels for males were significantly higher than females and were significantly higher for healthy than those hyperlipidemic Iraqi patients. These findings showed that vitamin D levels are affected by age, nationality, gender, and health statues and highlight the importance of vitamin D supplementation for groups with low levels particularly old, hijab wearing females, and hyperlipidemic groups.

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In the current work, a simple, economical, accurate, and precise HPLC method with UV detection was developed to quantify Favipiravir (FVIR) in spiked human plasma using acyclovir (ACVR) as an internal standard in the COVID-19 pandemic time. Both FVIR and ACVR were well separated and resolved on the C18 column using the mobile phase blend of methanol:acetonitrile:20 mM phosphate buffer (pH 3.1) in an isocratic mode flow rate of 1 mL/min with a proportion of 30:10:60 %, v/v/v. The detector wavelength was set at 242 nm. Maximum recovery of FVIR and ACVR from plasma was obtained with dichloromethane (DCM) as extracting solvent. The calibration curve was found to be linear in the range of 3.1–60.0 µg/mL with regression coefficient (r2) = 0.9976. However, with acceptable r2, the calibration data’s heteroscedasticity was observed, which was further reduced using weighted linear regression with weighting factor 1/x. Finally, the method was validated concerning sensitivity, accuracy (Inter and Intraday’s % RE and RSD were 0.28, 0.65 and 1.00, 0.12 respectively), precision, recovery (89.99%, 89.09%, and 90.81% for LQC, MQC, and HQC, respectively), stability (% RSD for 30-day were 3.04 and 1.71 for LQC and HQC, respectively at −20 °C), and carry-over US-FDA guidance for Bioanalytical Method Validation for researchers in the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Furthermore, there was no significant difference for selectivity when evaluated at LLOQ concentration of 3 µg/mL of FVIR and relative to the blank.

Objective The study aimed to investigate the prevalence of obesity among Jordanian women and its association with a wide range of chronic diseases. Methods Subjects were enrolled in the present cross-sectional study based on a random drop-off technique at the Obstetrics and Gynecology clinics at Jordan University Hospital. Initially, any female 18 years of age and older was asked to enroll in the study. Relevant data were gathered using a questionnaire composed of 30 questions, and body mass index (BMI) was determined from each participant’s weight and height. The following variables were collected: socio-demographic, chronic diseases, and health status. Each variable’s frequencies were reported, and the 95% confidence interval (95% CI) for each variable was calculated. For association analysis, Chi-square analysis was performed with an odds ratio (OR) and 95% CI. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was applied to a combination of independent variables and a dependent condition with covariate factors. Results The age-standardized prevalence of overweight/obese Jordanian women was 70.6% (95% CI 66.0–74.8%). On the other hand, the age-standardized prevalence of only obese women was 36.4 (95% Cl 31.9–41.2%). Furthermore, the association between age and overweight/obesity was significant (p<0.0001). The percentage of overweight and obesity started to be significant in the 30–39 year age group. Moreover, the OR for obesity ranged from 2.7 to 7.0 (p<0.05–0.01) for those women with only elementary education. Besides, high parity was significantly associated with obesity and elementary education. For chronic conditions, the percentages of hypertension, diabetes, hypertriglyceridemia, osteoporosis, and rheumatoid arthritis were significantly correlated with increased BMI in Jordanian women. With age adjustment, however, only hypertension was associated with obese level 3 with OR of 7.2 and 95% CI of 2.1–25.1 (p<0.01). Conclusion There is a high prevalence of overweight/obesity among women in Jordan, which was related to high parity and low education level. This high prevalence of obesity increased the incidence of chronic diseases, such as hypertension. Therefore, community-based multiple strategies are required to combat obesity in Jordanian women.

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The increment in numbers of antimicrobial resistant strains along with the scarcity of new targets for drug industry has forced scientists to investigate deeply in the natural resources for new compounds with antimicrobial activity. Pergularia tomentosa is a member of the Apocynaceae family found in a wide geographical region including the Gulf region, Africa, and the Middle East. It is used as a remedy for the treatment of skin sores, asthma, and bronchitis. Dried plants of Pergularia tomentosa were subjected to extraction by using a Soxhlet extractor process to obtain essential oil and characterized by HPLC- Mass Spectroscopy (GC-MS). The essential oil was evaluated for antibacterial activity against pathogenic microorganisms by well diffusion method and confirmed by microdilution method. Additionally, we measured the antioxidant activity of the extracts using DPPH reagent. Phytochemical analysis has revealed variation in compositions and concentrations of P. tomentosa constituents grown in Hail from other agricultural regions. The lowest MIC was recorded with ethyl acetate extract MIC of 6.25 mg/ml against S. typhi, whereas, the ethanolic extract had the broadest effective against the five strains with a MIC of 25 mg/ml. In conclusion, we summarize a variation between the phytochemical constituents of P. tomentosa plants grown in the district of Hail and other geographical regions. In addition, there are several natural phytocompounds with an antimicrobial activity could be a good target for the antimicrobial and antioxidants industry.

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