Background: Mobile phones have become one of the most indispensable accessories of professional and social life. However, several researches have indicated the potential colonization of surfaces and their ability to transmit diseases (fomites) of which the mobile phone is no exception. Thus this present study investigates bacterial contamination of mobile phones and their antibiotic susceptibil...

In 1999, a review of the literature for 1966-1997 suggested that ≈1.1 million persons die annually of shigellosis, including ≈880,000 in Asia. Our recent review of the literature for 1990-2009 indicates that ≈125 million shigellosis cases occur annually in Asia, of which ≈14,000 are fatal. This estimate for illnesses is similar to the earlier estimate, but the number of deaths is 98% lower; tha...

A pilot-scale sand-based fluidized bed bioreactor (FBBR) was utilized to treat both methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) and tert-butyl alcohol (TBA) from a contaminated aquifer. To evaluate the potential for re-use of the treated water, we tested for a panel of water quality indicator microorganisms and potential waterborne pathogens including total coliforms, Escherichia coli, Salmonella and Shigel...

Natural honey is an ancient remedy in folk medicine around the world particularly where conventional and modern therapeutic agents fail. Here we report antibacterial potential of a number of unifloral and multifloral natural honey samples produced in Pakistan. Honey samples were collected from colonies of Apis mallifera and Apis cerana bees foraged on Acacia modesta, Plactranthus speices, Zizip...

Enteroinvasive Escherichia coli (EIEC), a distinctive pathogenic form of E. coli causing dysentery, is similar in many properties to bacteria placed in the four species of Shigella. Shigella has been separated as a genus but in fact comprises several clones of E. coli. The evolutionary relationships of 32 EIEC strains of 12 serotypes have been determined by sequencing of four housekeeping genes...

Shigellosis is a severe diarrheal disease that affects hundreds of thousands of individuals resulting in significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. Shigellosis is caused by Shigella spp., a gram-negative bacterium that uses a Type 3 Secretion System (T3SS) to deliver effector proteins into the cytosol of infected human cells. Shigella infection triggers multiple signaling programs that resu...

The in-vitro activity of colistin sulphomethate sodium was compared with that of other commonly used antimicrobial agents against 377 recent clinical isolates of Gram-negative bacteria (including 94 strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa from patients with cystic fibrosis) and 16 organisms with defined resistance patterns. Colistin was active against most strains of P. aeruginosa (MIC90 4 mg/L), Shi...

BACKGROUND Shigella spp. are one of the most common causes of paediatric dysentery globally, responsible for a substantial proportion of diarrhoeal disease morbidity and mortality, particularly in industrialising regions. Alarming levels of antimicrobial resistance are now reported in S. flexneri and S. sonnei, hampering treatment options. Little is known, however, about the burden of infection...

Shigella is a major cause of dysentery across the world. Appropriate antibiotic treatment of shigellosis depends on resistance patterns. The present study was conducted to identify Shigella species and their antibiotic resistance patterns among dysenteric patients in Rezaei Hospital of Damghan. Isolation of Shigella species was conducted by specific culture medium and biochemical tests. The Shi...

Background: Shigella spp. are gram negative bacteria, which are of global public health importance. The growing of multidrug-resistant Shigella isolates are a major problemaround the world. Methods: Overall, 50 isolates of Shigella spp. from children diarrheic stools w...