Tuberculosis causes serious mortality and morbidity worldwide each year. A lot of effort and money is spent for the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis all over the world. The importance that countries give to health policies and public health is inversely proportional to the incidence of tuberculosis and multidrug resistant tuberculosis. The aim of our study was to evaluate the resistance profiles of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex strains which were isolated from sputum samples, collected by World Health Organisation from patients living in the northern region of Syria, where health services were disrupted due to the civil war. According to the protocol signed between the World Health Organization and our hospital; sputum samples taken from tuberculosis patients living in Afrin, Azez and Idlib regions or suspected of being resistant to anti-tuberculosis drugs were studied in our hospital. The cultivation process was performed in our laboratory using Löwenstein Jensen media and MGIT-960 system. The susceptibility tests for primary anti-tuberculosis drugs were performed using MGIT-960 system for M.tuberculosis complex isolates. The isolates identified as MDR/RD-TB (multi-drug-resistant-rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis) were sent to National Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory of Public Health Institution of Türkiye for susceptibility testing to first and second line drugs. Mutation and wild-type determination were studied by "Line Probe Assay (LPA)" method to investigate the susceptibility of the isolates to isoniazid, rifampicin, fluoroquinolone and aminoglycoside/cyclic peptide. The results obtained from the patients were collected and evaluated retrospectively from the records. Growth was observed in 18 samples out of 171 sputum samples from 67 patients; 13 isolates were detected as MDR-TB while one isolate was detected as mono RR-TB. The rate of mono RR-TB was 1.5% and the rate of MDR-TB was 19.4%. MUT3 causing rifampicin resistance was detected in 17.9% of the patients, katG/MUT1 causing isoniazid resistance in 17.9% and WT loss causing aminoglycoside/cyclic peptide resistance were detected in 19.4% of the patients. Neither fluoroquinolone resistance nor a mutation leading to fluoroquinolone resistance was detected in the study. When the sputum samples taken from the patients living in Northern Syria were examined, the frequency of MDR-TB was found to be quite high. MDR-TB, which is an important public health problem, was found at high rates due to the internal turmoil in the region and poor accessibility to health services. Since the gene mutations causing drug resistance with the LPA method differ with the conducted studies, it is important to evaluate the dominant gene mutations for determining the TB treatment strategies in the region.

Amaç: SARS-CoV-2’nin yol açtığı COVİD-19 pandemisi başladığı günden bugüne etkisini arttırarak, dünya genelinde milyonlarca insanı enfekte etmiş ve ciddi oranda ölümlere yol açmıştır. Halen etkili ve kesin bir tedavi ya da profilaksi yönteminin bulunamamış olması aşı çalışmalarının önemini daha çok arttırmıştır. Ülkemizde 14 Ocak 2021 tarihi itibariyle başta sağlık çalışanları olmak üzere tüm vatandaşlara CoronaVac (Sinovac) ve Pfizer-Biontech aşıları uygulanmaya başlanmıştır. Bu çalışmada ülkemizde aktif olarak uygulanan bu iki aşının etkinlikleri değerlendirilmiştir. Yöntem: Çalışmaya daha önce klinik, radyolojik ya da PCR yöntemlerle COVİD-19 tanısı konulmamış olan 84 gönüllü dahil edilmiştir. Gönüllülerden aşı uygulamasından önce ve ilk doz aşı uygulamasının üzerinden 1 aylık bir süre geçtikten sonra serum örnekleri alınmıştır. Alınan serum örneklerinden, Enzim Linked Immun Sorbent Assay (ELISA) yöntemiyle SARS-CoV-2 IgG düzeyleri ölçülerek, iki farklı aşının etkinlikleri açısından incelenmiştir. Bulgular: Çalışmaya 39’u kadın, 45’i erkek olmak üzere, 84 gönüllü dahil olmuş; 50 gönüllü CoronaVac (Sinovac), 34 gönüllü ise Pfizer-Biontech aşısını tercih etmişlerdir. CoronaVac (Sinovac) aşısı uygulanan 13, Pfizer-Biontech aşısı uygulanan 4 gönüllünün aşı öncesi SARS-CoV-2 IgG antikor titreleri pozitif olarak saptanmıştır. Aşı öncesi SARS-CoV-2 IgG antikor titreleri negatif olan gönüllülerden; tek doz CoronaVac (Sinovac) aşısı uygulananlarda %67,6 (25/37), tek doz Pfizer-Biontech aşısı uygulananlarda %100 (30/30) oranında seropozitiflik tespit edilmiştir. Sonuç: Çalışmaya katılan gönüllülerin 17'sinde (%20,2) aşı öncesi seropozitiflik saptandı. Çalışma öncesi seronegatif olan gönüllülerden; CoronaVac-Sinovac ile aşılananların %67.6'sı; Pfizer-Biontech ile aşılananların %100'ünde aşı sonrası seropozitiflik gelişmiştir. Çalışmada Pfizer-Biontech aşısının tek doz aşılamadan sonra bağışıklık sistemini daha iyi uyardığı görülüyor.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections are the focus of new treatment alternatives due to their frequent development of resistance to antibiotics and formation of biofilms. Recently, emphasis has been placed on combinations of antibiotics with drugs used for different indications. In this study the combined effects of metformin with imipenem, ceftazidime, cefepime, ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin has been investigated. 50 P. aeruginosa isolates isolated from patients with cystic fibrosis come to Gaziantep University Microbiology Laboratory were included in the study. The susceptibilities of the isolates to antibiotics were investigated by the liquid microdilution method and the combined effect of metformin and antibiotics by the chequerboard synergy test. In our study, as a result of the chequerboard synergy test; synergy between ceftazidime and metformin 6%, partial synergistic 22% isolates; while no synergistic effect was detected between cefepime and metformin in any isolate, partially synergy 46%; synergy between imipenem and metformin 4%, partial synergy 10%; synergy between ciprofloxacin and metformin 6%, partial synergy 6%, antagonist effect 2%; synergy was detected between levofloxacin and metformin 2% and a partial synergy was detected 12%. This study shows that metformin could be a potential antibiotic in its current form or in different chemical forms to be produced synthetically.