0000000000138274
AUTHOR
S. Pignato
Knowledge, beliefs and attitudes of Italian female undergraduate students towards HIV infection and risky sexual behaviour. Do female medical students make good peer educators?
<p><strong>Background</strong>: The main purpose of this study was to identify and describe knowledge, beliefs and attitudes towards HIV infection and risky sexual behaviour in female medical freshmen in order to evaluate the possibility of female medical student-based peer education.</p><p><strong>Methods</strong>: Researchers surveyed 560 freshmen: 280 medical students and 280 non medical students at two Italian Universities, collecting the data through anonymous, self administered questionnaires. Data were codified and statistical analysis was computed using Statistica and Openstat 4 software.</p><p><strong>Results</strong>…
[Molecular methods in the epidemiology of gram-negative bacterial infections]
Identification and typing of bacterial isolates from patients and environment are necessary in order to detect the sources of infections. In recent years different molecular typing methods have been carried out and proved more reliable than methods based on phenotypical characters. We have applied two methods of genotyping, i. e. ribotyping and rrnARDRA (Amplified Ribosomal DNA Restriction Analysis) methods, to the study of different bacterial species. Ribotyping was the first universal method for molecular typing of bacteria. We have succeded both in typing various species of enterobacteria (Salmonella Wien, S. Enteritidis, Shigella sonnei, Proteus spp., Morganella morganii, Providencia sp…
[The risk of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in Sicily, through imported bovines for slaughter]
The presence of Escherichia coli 0157:117, an emerging pathogen that has been. responsible of serious epidemics of hemorrhagic colitis and hemolytic-uremic syndrome in several countries, has been detected in rectal swabs in 13 out of 201 (6,5%) calves imported in Sicily (Italy) from France, 7 out of 154 (4,5%) calves imported from Spain, and only one out of 207 (0,5%) calves from Sicilian farms. The only positive Sicilian calf was from a farm where imported calves had been stalled some days before. All the isolates showed eaeA and hlyA virulence genes. Genes for verocytotoxins were detected in 18 isolates, which showed the following genotypes: stx2c (12 isolates), stxl stx2 (4 isolates), sa…
rRNA gene restriction patterns and biotypes of Shigella sonnei.
SUMMARYShigella sonneiis a major agent of diarrhoeal disease in developed as well as in developing countries. Several phenotypic methods to define strain differences have been applied to this species ofShigellaincluding, more recently, analysis of extrachromosomal and chromosomal DNA.In this study, 432 endemic and epidemic strains isolated between 1975 and 1991 in Italy, France and Switzerland were submitted to rRNA gene restriction pattern analysis, after digestion of whole-cell DNA byHincII, and to concomitant biotyping.Thirteen ribotypes, HI to H13, and five biotypes, a, d, e, f, g, were detected. Xinety-five percent of the sporadic strains were assigned to ribotypes HI to H4, which coul…