Background and objective: Viral Hepatitis Type B&C is serious public health challenge throughout the world.Hepatitis B and C viruses still remain to be the major causes of chronic hepatitis.It is estimated that around 350-400 million people in the world are chronic carriers of HBV, which represents approximately 7% of the total populationwhereas infection with HCV is found in approximately 3% of the world population, which represents 160 million people. Hepatitis B infection has a wide range of seroprevalence in the Mediterranean countries ranging from intermediate (=>2% ) to high prevalence ( =>7%). World Health Organization estimated a prevalence rate for HCV infection of about 4.6% in Eastern Mediterranean in 1999. During the eightieths years of the last century, Iraq was considered to be of intermediate endemicity with hepatitis B as reflected by 3% seroprevalence of HBsAg in normal population. Hepatitis C was found to be of low endemicity among blood donors 0.5%. There were no national wide epidemiological studies regarding the prevalence of hepatitis B&C accordingly we conduct this study to determine the prevalence of both types all over the Iraq. Methods: From the 1st of January 2005 to 31st of December 2006, a community based cross-sectional study was conducted all over Iraqi governorates. A total of 9610 persons, recruited by surveying a nationally representative random sample of households were analyzed. A stratified random sample proportional to size of each of the 18 Iraqi governorates, both urban and rural areas were included. Prevalence estimates were therefore weighted and age-adjusted. Five (5ml) of blood samples were taken from the study subjects, and tested for hepatitis B surface antigen, antibody to hepatitis B core antigen antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen and hepatitis C antibodies . Results: The national prevalence rate of HBs Ag was 1.6% and correlated positively with age. The prevalence rate of anti-HBs antibodies was 17%. The prevalence of anti-HBc was 9.7%. The prevalence of anti-HCV was low (0.4%). The prevalence rate of anti-HBs antibodies in <10 years children is only 32.2%, which raise the issue of incomplete coverage of hepatitis B vaccine during the years preceding the study years. Conclusion: The findings revealed that Iraq is of low prevalence with HBsAg.On the other hand,hepatitis C was found to be of very low prevalence. As a marker of exposure to hepatitis B, Anti HBcIgG was found to increase with age.
The effects of nutrients and physical conditions on phytase production were investigated with a recently isolated strain of Aspergillus tubingensis SKA under solid state fermentation on wheat bran. The nutrient factors investigated included carbon source, nitrogen source, phosphate source and concentration, metal ions (salts) and the physical parameters investigated included inoculum size, pH, temperature and fermentation duration. Our investigations revealed that optimal productivity of phytase was achieved using wheat bran supplemented with: 1.5% glucose. 0.5% (NH4)2SO4, 0.1% sodium phytate. Additionally, optimal physical conditions were 1 × 105 spore/g substrate, initial pH of 5.0, temperature of fermentation 30˚C and fermentation dura
... Show MoreActivated carbon prepared from date stones by chemical activation with ferric chloride (FAC) was used an adsorbent to remove phenolic compounds such as phenol (Ph) and p-nitro phenol (PNPh) from aqueous solutions. The influence of process variables represented by solution pH value (2-12), adsorbent to adsorbate weight ratio (0.2-1.8), and contact time (30-150 min) on removal percentage and adsorbed amount of Ph and PNPh onto FAC was studied. For PNPh adsorption,( 97.43 %) maximum removal percentage and (48.71 mg/g) adsorbed amount was achieved at (5) solution pH,( 1) adsorbent to adsorbate weight ratio, and (90 min) contact time. While for Ph adsorption, at (4) solution pH, (1.4) absorbent to adsorbate weight ratio, and (120 min) contact
... Show MoreBackground: Suppression of quorum sensing (QS) that regulates many virulence factors, including antimicrobial resistance, in bacteria may subject the pathogenic microbes to the harmful consequences of the antibiotics, increasing their susceptibility to such drugs. Aim: The current study aimed to make an aqueous crude extract from the soil Proteus mirabilis isolate with the use of the gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) technique for its analysis, and then, study the impact of the extract on clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Methods: Preparation of crude extracts from P. mirabilis (both organic and aqueous), which were then analyzed by GC-MS to detect the bioactive ingredients. Furthermore, the extract’s capability to i
... Show MoreThe research studied and analyzed the hybrid parallel-series systems of asymmetrical components by applying different experiments of simulations used to estimate the reliability function of those systems through the use of the maximum likelihood method as well as the Bayes standard method via both symmetrical and asymmetrical loss functions following Rayleigh distribution and Informative Prior distribution. The simulation experiments included different sizes of samples and default parameters which were then compared with one another depending on Square Error averages. Following that was the application of Bayes standard method by the Entropy Loss function that proved successful throughout the experimental side in finding the reliability fun
... Show MoreThis study reports on natural convection heat transfer in a square enclosure of length (L=20 cm) with a saturated porous medium (solid glass beads) having same fluid (air) at lower horizontal layer and free air fill in the rest of the cavity's space. The experimental work has been performed under the effects of heating from bottom by constant heat flux q=150,300,450,600 W/m2 for four porous layers thickness Hp (2.5,5,7.5,1) cm and three heaters length δ(20,14,7) cm. The top enclosure wall was good insulated and the two side walls were symmetrically cooled at constant temperature. Four layers of porous media with small porosity, Rayleigh number range (60.354 - 241.41) and (Da) 3.025x10-8 has been investigated. The obtained data of temperatu
... Show MoreThe largest use of x-ray in medical by dentists, employers or persons that needed by patients with specific conditions, lead to higher exposure of x-ray that may cause many diseases. In the present work radiography films have been used in evaluating the efficiency of using unsaturated polyester polymer reinforced with lead oxide (PbO) as shield material for medical x-ray devices, many parameters studied like concentration and thickness that they are increasing the attenuation of x-ray in them. The results show that the attenuation of X-ray increasing with concentration of reinforced material and with thickness, and the optical density decreases with increasing concentration from 0% to 50%, we chose 30% as suitable concentration to increase
... Show MoreAsthma is one of the most common chronic, non-communicable diseases affecting children worldwide. The estimated prevalence of pediatric asthma in Iraq is 15.8%. Physiologic, inflammatory and structural factors contribute to the development of asthma. Assessment and monitoring of asthma control can be done by a validated children asthma control test (CACT). Management of asthma must address three components which are an appropriate management plan, the most appropriate medication if necessary, and the use of safe and effective medication. The management plan should consider patient counseling and education about the definition of asthma, signs, and symptoms, the pathophysiology of asthma, common triggers for asthma and how can avoid them,
... Show MoreIsolation and identification of bacterial isolates were carried out according to the morphology and biochemical characteristics on one hundred and twenty stool specimens collected from children under five years old via using biochemical tests and Api 20E compact system for further confirmation. Bacterial isolates were distributed as (34.48, 20.68, 5.17,0.86) % for Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi ,Enterobacter aerogenos, Citrobacter freundii and Hafnia alvei respectively and 9.48 % for each Proteus mirabilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella Pneumonia. As well as, 2.58% for both Shigella sonnei and Serratia marcescens. Antibiotic susceptibility test for 116 bacterial isolates was performed towards 20 antibiotics types using disk d
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