Introduction and objective: Animal bites are among the most critical in public health problems. Dogs are the leading cause of bite injuries. The study aimed to investigate the epidemiology and clinical features of dog bite cases admitted to an emergency department, as well as their temporal...

Objective The inflammatory/anti-inflammatory balance has an important role in the clinical course of SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19), which has affected over 100 million people since it first appeared in China in December 2019. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells (TREM)-1/TREM-2 ratio and COVID-19 severity. Methods A total of 171 individuals were included in the study: 121 patients who were admitted to the chest diseases department and intensive care unit of our hospital and diagnosed with COVID-19 by real-time PCR of nasopharyngeal swab samples from December 2020 to March 2021 and a control group consisting of 50 asymptomatic health workers in our hospital who had negative real-time PCR results during routine COVID-19 screening. Results TREM-1 level was significantly higher in patients with severe disease compared with the moderate and control groups (P = .003, P = .001). TREM-2 levels did not differ significantly in moderate and severe patients (P = .36) but were significantly higher in both patient groups compared with the control group (P = .001 for both). TREM-1/TREM-2 ratio was significantly higher in the severe patient group than in the moderate and control groups (P = .001 for both). In receiver operating characteristic curve analysis of TREM-1/TREM-2 ratio in patients with moderate and severe COVID-19, the area under the curve was 0.723. Using a cut-off value of 0.125 for TREM-1/TREM-2 ratio in the Youden index calculation, the sensitivity was 60% and specificity was 71%. Conclusion Experience with the positive effects of medical treatments to restore inflammatory balance in the course of COVID-19 is steadily increasing. TREM-1 and TREM-2 have an important role in inflammation and may serve as biomarkers and therapeutic targets in the early treatment and follow-up of COVID-19.

Background: Training of infectious disease (ID) specialists is structured on classical clinical microbiology training in Turkey and ID specialists work as clinical microbiologists at the same time. Hence, this study aimed to determine the clinical skills and knowledge required by clinical microbiologists. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out between June 1, 2010 and September 15, 2010 in 32 ID departments in Turkey. Only patients hospitalized and followed up in the ID departments between January-June 2010 who required consultation with other disciplines were included. Results: A total of 605 patients undergoing 1343 consultations were included, with pulmonology, neurology, cardiology, gastroenterology, nephrology, dermatology, haematology, and endocrinology being the most frequent consultation specialties. The consultation patterns were quite similar and were not affected by either the nature of infections or the critical clinical status of ID patients. Conclusions: The results of our study show that certain internal medicine subdisciplines such as pulmonology, neurology and dermatology appear to be the principal clinical requisites in the training of ID specialists, rather than internal medicine as a whole.

Brusellosis is the world's most common bacterial zoonotic infection and is still endemic in many developing countries. The clinical appearance of brucellosis is not specific, but the course and severity of the infection varies. In this study, it was aimed to determine the relationship between laboratory parameters and clinical response and organ involvement in patients with Brucellosis diagnosed with specific diagnostic tests. In the study, 100 patients without previous diagnosis of Brucellosis who have admitted to the Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology and had positive Brucella tube agglutination tests and whose clinic was compatible with Brucellosis were evaluated prospectively. Patients were invited to be checked in the 1st, 2nd and 6th weeks . Patients with hip pain and low back pain were evaluated with sacroiliac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and lumbar MRI for sacroiliitis and spondylodiscitis. Patients with liver and bone marrow involvements, sacroiliitis, spondylodiscitis and orchitis were recorded as the patients with organ involvement. After six weeks, the decline of the complaints was considered as a clinical response. In the 6th week of the treatment, it was observed that platelet distribution width (PDW) and mean platelet volume (MPV) levels were lower in patients with a clinical response compared to the patients with no clinical response which was statistically significant (p= 0.01, p= 0.02). Platelet and platelet lymphocyte ratio (PLR) level in patients with organ involvement in the 1st and 6th weeks of the treatment, were observed to be lower than the patients without organ involvement which was statistically significant (week 1: p= 0.001, p= 0.01; week 6: p= 0.03, p= 0.01). Among patients with organ involvement and non-organ involvement, the area under the curve was 66% in the ROC curve analysis for PLR at the onset of the treatment. When the cut-off value was taken as 128.8%, the sensitivity was 55%, and the specificity was 78%. Depending on the level of platelet at the beginning of the treatment, in the ROC curve analysis carried out among patients with organ involvement and non-organ involvement, the area under the curve was 73% and when the cut off value was taken as 256000, the sensitivity was 71%, and the specificity was 68%. In the 6th week of the treatment, the area under the curve was observed as 67% in the ROC curve analysis of the PDW level among patients from whom clinical responses were received and not received. When the cut-off value was taken as 10.75%, the sensitivity was 65%, and the specificity was 70%. In the ROC curve analysis of the MPV value for clinical response, the area under the curve was 66%, and when the cut-off value was taken as 9.95, the sensitivity was observed as 52%, and the specificity was 74%. As a result, in the evaluation of the clinical response, which is important in the termination of the treatment in patients with Brucellosis, the use of MPV and PDW values in the evaluation of organ involvement and platelet level and PLO in the follow up, are cheap, easily accessible biomarkers that can be used clinically.

Amaç: Sağlık çalışanlarında SARS-CoV-2 maruziyeti riski genel toplumdan daha yüksektir. Tıbbi konularda toplumda rol model olan sağlık çalışanlarının aşılara karşı tutumu toplumun da yaklaşımını etkilemektedir. Bu çalışma ile Erzurum ilinde görev yapan sağlık çalışanlarının COVID-19 aşısına karşı tutumlarının ve aşı kararsızlığı yaşayanlarda etkili faktörlerin değerlendirilmesi amaçlanmıştır. Yöntem: Kesitsel tipte planlanan bu çalışma, 2021 yılı Ocak-Mayıs arasında Erzurum ilinde görev yapan sağlık çalışanlarına online anket formu ile uygulandı. Verilerin analizi SPSS v25 programı ile yapıldı. Bulgular: Araştırmaya katılan 235 sağlık çalışanının yaş ortalaması 36.3±9.2 yıl ve %56.2’si kadındı. Katılımcıların %69.4’ü hekim, %20’si hemşire, %10.6’sı destek personeli olup, meslekte çalışma süresi ortalaması 12.1±9.2 yıldı. Katılımcıların %27.6’sı aşı yaptırmak istemiyor veya kararsızdı. Sağlık çalışanlarının %75.3’ü COVID-19 aşısını yakınlarına/kendilerine danışanlara önerebileceğini belirtti. COVID-19 aşısı konusunda kararsız olan veya yaptırmak istemeyen katılımcıların %32.3’ü yan etkiler konusunda endişe duyduklarını, %26.1’i aşı hakkında yeterli bilgiye sahip olmadıklarını belirtmişti. Erkek cinsiyet ve meslekte çalışma süresindeki artış aşıya karşı tutumu olumlu yönde etkileyen faktörler olarak öne çıkmıştır. Katılımcılardan mevsimsel influenza aşısını düzenli yaptıranlar arasında COVID-19 aşısına olumlu yaklaşanların sıklığı %88.6 iken, yaptırmayanlarda %68.6 idi (p