Current study was aimed to produce nitrogen fixing Azotobacter sp. (SR-4) and phosphorus solubilizers Aspergillus niger (A. niger) and to evaluate their efficiency as biofertilizers for agricultural practices. Two biofertilizer including nitrogen fixing and phosphorus solubilizing were grown. The nitrogen fixing efficiency of Azotobacter (SR-4) was determined by Kjeldahl method. Similarly, Vanadomoybdate method was used to measure the soluble phosphorus while Heinonen method was used to analyze concentration of phytase and phosphatase in the cultures. Furthermore, both biofertilizers were tested in a field trail on Lagenaria siceraria (bottle gourd) and Abelmoschus esculentus (okra). The Azotobacter (SR-4) strain was found efficient nitrogen fixer as 35.08 mg of nitrogen per gram of carbon was produced after 72 h of fermentation. Similarly, A. niger strain excrete extracellular phosphate solubilizing enzymes such as phytase (133UI in 48 h of fermentation) and phosphatase (170UI in 48 h of fermentation) which can solubilize the rock phosphate and make it available to plants. In field trials on selected plants (L. siceraria and A. esculentus), both biofertilizers showed significant increase in plant height, leaf length/width, fruit size and number of fruits per plant when compared with controls/untreated plants. Furthermore, plants co-inoculated with both the N fixing Azotobacter and phosphorus solubilizing A. niger have enhanced performance than those treated with each biofertilizer alone. The inoculation of seeds with A. niger and Azotobacter may replace costly and environment toxic chemical fertilizers with environment friendly and cost effective biofertilizers.

Antimicrobial resistance is mushrooming as a silent pandemic. It is considered among the most common priority areas identified by both national and international agencies. The global development of multidrug-resistant strains now threatens public health care improvement by introducing antibiotics against infectious agents. These strains are the product of both continuous evolution and unchecked antimicrobial usage (AMU). The ESKAPE pathogens (Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter species) are the leading cause of nosocomial infections throughout the world. Most of them are now multidrug-resistant, which pose significant challenges in clinical practice. Understanding these bacteria’s resistance mechanisms is crucial for developing novel antimicrobial agents or other alternative tools to fight against these pathogens. A mechanistic understanding of resistance in these pathogens would also help predict underlying or even unknown mechanisms of resistance of other emerging multidrug-resistant pathogens. Research and development to find better antibacterial drugs and research on tools like CRISPER-Cas9, vaccines, and nanoparticles for treatment of infections that can be further explored in the clinical practice health sector have recognized these alternatives as essential and highly effective tools to mitigate antimicrobial resistance. This review summarizes the known antimicrobial resistance mechanisms of ESKAPE pathogens and strategies for overcoming this resistance with an extensive overview of efforts made in this research area.

Background: The severity of COVID‐19 could be evaluated by examining several blood parameters mainly white blood cell (WBC) count, granulocytes, platelet, and novel hemocytometric markers neutrophils to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet‐to‐lymphocyte (PLR), and lymphocyte to monocyte ratio (LMR). The current study was conducted to investigate alteration in blood parameters and their association with the severity and mortality of COVID‐19 patients.Methodology: An observational cross‐sectional study was conducted retrospectively, a total of 101 COVID‐19 positive patients were examined: 52 were mild, 24 were moderate, 09 were severe, and 16 were critically diseased patients. We also recorded 16 deaths associated with the critical group. The overall mean age observed in our study was 48.94 years, where the mean age for critical individuals was 62.12 ± 14.35 years.Results: A significant association between the disease severity and elevation in blood parameters were observed. The WBC's and granulocyte count were significantly increased (p value <0.001) while the mean platelet count (165.0 × 10⁹/L) and red blood cell volume distribution width (RDW) were decreased in the critical group (57.86%) compared to mild group's patients (177.3%) (p = 0.83). The lymphocytes count was decreased in critical patients (1.40 × 10⁹/L) compared to mild patients (1.92 × 10⁹/L) (p = 0.28). A significant association was observed in platelet‐lymphocyte ratio (p < 0.001), Neutrophil‐Lymphocyte ratio (p = <0.001), and Lymphocyte‐Monocyte ratio (0.011).Conclusion: These blood parameters could be used as a suitable biomarker for the prognosis and severity of COVID‐19. Evaluating novel hemograms NLR, PLR, and LMR can aid clinicians to identify potentially severe cases at early stages, initiate effective management in time, and conduct early triage which may reduce the overall mortality of COVID‐19 patients.

Summary: The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) has disrupted immunization programs around the globe, potentially increasing life‐threatening vaccine‐preventable diseases. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries, which are still struggling to eradicate wild poliovirus. All vaccination campaigns in Pakistan were suspended in April due to the COVID‐19 outbreak, leading 40 million children to miss out on polio vaccination. Like the climate crisis, the COVID‐19 pandemic could be regarded as a child‐rights crisis because it could have life‐threatening impact over children, who need immunization, now and in the long‐term. Delays in polio vaccination programs might not have immediate impact but, in the long‐term, the increase in polio cases in Pakistan could result in the global export of infections. Therefore, healthcare authorities must intensify their efforts to track and vaccinate unvaccinated children in countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan. Polio vaccination campaigns need to resume immediately, so we suggest applying social distancing measures along with standard operating procedure to flatten the transmission curve of COVID‐19. Furthermore, the concurrent emergence of cVDPV2 means that tOPV should temporarily be used for primary immunization. In the current review, we have discussed delays in polio vaccination, surveillance of polio viruses, reported cases in Pakistan along with recommendations to overcome interrupted immunization.

The current study is a retrospective epidemic report regarding dengue fever (DF) virus infection cases (2017) from fifteen districts of KPK, Pakistan. Medical records of 120 948 patients were reviewed retrospectively for demographic, clinical and laboratory data. The presence of dengue infection was confirmed by NS1-ELISA and RT-PCR, respectively. The total positive cases (of suspected DF samples) were 24 938 (20.6%), whereas seventy cases (0.28%) had a fatal outcome. Mean age ± SD of the dengue patients was 26 ± 19.8 years, while; the most affected age group was from 16 to 30 years (Chi-square: 12 820.125, p: 0.00). The infected males were 65.3%, and that of the female was 34.7%. All the dengue-infected patients were observed with symptoms of severe fever (100%), body aches (95%), gums and nose bleeding (5%), skin rashes (30%), vomiting (70%). The highest infection rate was found in district Peshawar and that of the lowest was in Bannu, Hungu and Luki Marwat. A high rate of dengue infection was found in post-monsoon months i.e. October (41%) and September (32%) of the year. The results proved that if the dengue outbreaks reveal further in KPK, it could alarmingly increase the mortality rate. Therefore, the Department of Public Health in KPK, Pakistan may take proper measures to avoid and control dengue epidemics in the future.