Abstract

Background and Objective: Influenza is an acute respiratory infection caused by Influenza virus with three kinds of A, B and C . This virus  spreads througout  the world   and produce some epidemics with different intensities . This study aimed to determine the prevalence of influenza B in patients reffering to health centers.

Material and Methods: this study was conducted on 878 samples in 2011-2013.  Using PureLink^TM Viral RNA/DNA Kit,  Influenza-RNA was extracted. Then Influenza B was distinguished by using  SuperScript III Platinum, Quantitive Real Time PCR System from Invitrogen^TM , specific primers and probs.

Results: the rate of Influenza B positive was %5.58 of the patients that %55.10 of them were female and %44.89 male. The highest rate was related to 31-40 and 51-60 year old patients.

Conclusion:

given the prevalence of  influenza B virus and lack of genetic changes , it is recommended that a proper vaccine for improving immunty and effective drugs for treatmet be used.

Keywords: Influenza B Virus; Respiratory Tract Infections; Common Cold; RT-PCR

ABSTRACT
            Background and objectives: Coronaviruses are the main causes of respiratory tract infections in humans. They are also the second leading cause of common cold after rhinoviruses, and can lead to otitis media and asthma. The aim of this study was to investigate the molecular detection of coronaviruses in clinical samples of patients with flu-like symptoms.
            Methods: Specimens were taken from 297 patients with flu-like symptoms who were referred to the influenza laboratory of Golestan University of Medical Sciences during 2012-2014. RNA was extracted from the specimens using an RNA extraction kit. Accordingly, RNA was used for cDNA synthesis and GAPDH was used as the internal control. Synthesized cDNA was investigated for presence of human coronaviruses genome with real-time polymerase chain reaction using specific primers. Data were analyzed by SPSS 16.0 software. 
            Results: The coronavirus genome was not detected in the specimens of patients with flu-like symptoms.
            Conclusion: Genome of human coronaviruses is absent in samples from patients with upper respiratory tract infections and influenza-like symptoms, which may indicate the low prevalence of the virus in the Golestan Province, Iran.
            KEYWORDS: Human coronaviruses, Upper respiratory tract infection, Golestan Province.

Background and Objectives: Moraxella catarrhalis is considered as an emerging pathogen and a new nosocomial infection agent. This study was conducted to isolate and identify M. catarrhalis from clinical samples (respiratory tracts) and assess them for antimicrobial susceptibility patterns.
      Methods: In total, 280 samples were collected from patients with respiratory tract infection, and 120 samples were obtained from healthy individuals in the control group. The isolates were identified by phenotyping and genotyping methods, and their antibiotic susceptibility was  evaluated using disk diffusion methods. The presence of β-lactamase and efflux pump activity were specified via phenotypic methods. Finally, Bro and acrA genes in the isolates were detected by PCR technique.
      Results: The frequency of this bacterium was 9.64% (27 out of 280) in patients with respiratory tract infection and 4.16% (5 out of 120) in the control group. Although the isolates were resistant to penicillin, they had various responses against other antibiotics. The results obtained from molecular method showed that 90.6% and 84.3% of the isolates possessed Bro and acrA genes, respectively. There was a significant relationship (P<0.05) between the presence of Bro and acrA genes and antibacterial resistance to ampicillin, amoxicillin, cefazolin, cefuroxime, and chloramphenicol.
      Conclusion: Our findings confirmed the existence of M. catarrhalis in patients with respiratory diseases and the high prevalence of antibiotic resistant genes in M. catarrhalis isolates. Therefore, timely diagnosis and successful treatment can play important roles in preventing their spread.