Salma Adnan Bekhit

Background: Cholera persists as a global public health threat, endangering the lives of vulnerable societies including the MENA region where many countries are facing recent cholera outbreaks. The present study aimed to characterize the knowledge, attitude, and practices status related to cholera in six MENA countries in the MENA region. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a structured, validated questionnaire and distributed across different social media platforms in Egypt, Sudan, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen between December 2022 and January 2023. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to determine factors associated with knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to cholera. Results: A total of 2971 participants were included in the study, of which 62.5% were females; with a mean age of 34.8 ± 12.3 years; 85.4% heard about cholera; and 1.9% experienced cholera infection during cholera outbreaks in their countries. Among those who heard about cholera, 50.7% had adequate knowledge, 67.3% had desirable attitudes, and 50.3% reported good practices. Multivariate analysis revealed that being older, highly educated, employed, working in the medical field, and living in an outbreak country were the significant predictors affecting good knowledge. Additionally, good attitudes were significantly increased by older ages, females, those working in the medical sector, and those living in an outbreak country. Whereas working in the medical sector and having a larger number of people living in the same house significantly decreased the practice scores. Conclusions: Raising community awareness about fecal-oral diseases transmitted via contaminated food or water, such as cholera, is crucial. This can be achieved by organizing targeted awareness campaigns for the whole community. Furthermore, mandatory educational workshops and programs for medical professionals are essential, as they serve as role models for the community.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of AFB1 contamination in agricultural products used to produce fermented alcoholic beverages is increasing, raising concerns for human health. AIM: The aim of this study was to investigate dietary exposure to AFB1 and ethanol through homemade and industrial fermented beverages commonly consumed in South Kivu, DR Congo. METHOD: AFB1 and ethanol were measured using reverse-phase HPLC with a fluorescence detector and a refractive index detector, respectively. Data on fermented beverage consumption were collected from 847 adults using a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). RESULTS: The findings revealed that industrial sample Man 8 had the highest exposure to AFB1 (77.8 ± 45.0 ng/kg b.w/day) and Man4 had the highest ethanol exposure (4.83 ± 2.40 mg/kg b.w/day); while among homemade samples, Kasiksi had the highest exposure to both AFB1 (8.8 ± 6.6 ng/kg b.w/day) and ethanol (2.46 ± 1.85 mg/kg b.w/day). The margin of exposure (MOE) for AFB1 was 1011.7 or less, and for ethanol, it was 818.2 or less. Men are more likely to be exposed. CONCLUSION: Increased consumption of homemade and industrial fermented beverages raises the risk of developing hepatocellular cancer (HCC) because the levels of AFB1 and ethanol MOE drop below the safe limit of 10000. Further research is needed to investigate the connection between AFB1, ethanol, and HCC, especially in regions where alcohol misuse is common.

The parents’ attitude toward vaccinating children and adolescents against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) remains inconsistent and needs further elucidation. The high rates of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region require intensive research to understand the determinants of this phenomenon. This study aimed to validate a version of the Parent Attitudes about Childhood Vaccines (PACV) tool in Arabic, the most widely spoken language in the MENA. The study objectives included the investigation of Arab-speaking parents’ views regarding COVID-19 vaccination of their children. Parents living in Egypt with at least one child aged 5–18 years were eligible to participate in the study that was conducted through an online survey with 15 PACV items. The PACV tool was translated into Arabic using forward and backward translation. To assess the psychometric properties of the Arabic version of PACV, Pearson’s correlation coefficient and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (EFA and CFA) were performed. A total of 223 parents participated in the study: 59.82% aged 30–39 years, 69.20% were females, 46.19% were university-educated, and 40.63% had one child. The overall Cronbach’s alpha for the Arabic version of PACV was 0.799. The EFA of the 15 items showed that three domains were most conceptually equivalent. All items had a positive significant correlation with the mean score of each subscale except for item 4 (r = 0.016, p = 0.811). Regression analyses results indicated that education, previous COVID-19 infection, vaccine status of parents, and PACV score were significantly associated with the intention of the parents to vaccinate their children against COVID-19. The CFA results showed that most of the factor loadings were statistically significant (p < 0.010) except for items 4 and 7. However, the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA = 0.080) and the standardized root mean squared residual (SRMR = 0.080) indicated that the model had a reasonable fit, and the three factors were good in reproducing each correlation. Our study results indicated the validity and reliability of the PACV instrument in Arabic language. Consequently, the PACV can be used to assess COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in a majority of MENA countries for better delineation of this highly prevalent phenomenon in the region.

The synthesis of novel series of structurally related 4-pyrazolyl benzenesulfonamide derivatives is described. All the newly synthesized compounds were examined for their anti-inflammatory activity using cotton pellet induced granuloma and carrageenan induced rat paw edema bioassays. In addition the inhibitory activities of cyclooxygenase-1 and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-1 and COX-2), ulcerogenic effect and acute toxicity were determined. Furthermore, all the compounds were evaluated for their in vitro antimicrobial activity against Eischerichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans. Docking poses for compounds 6b and 7b separately in the active site of the human COX-2 enzyme and DNA-gyrase B were also obtained. The results revealed that compounds 3c, 4b, 4c, 5c, 6b and 7b exhibited comparable or better anti-inflammatory activity compared to indomethacin and celecoxib with no or minimal ulcerogenic effect and high safety margin. Compounds 3b, 3c, 4b, 4c, 5a-c, 6a, 6b and 7a-c displayed appreciable antibacterial activity against both E. coli and S. aureus compared with ampicillin. Compounds 5a-c and 7a had antibacterial activity against E. coli similar to ampicillin whereas compounds 3b, 3c, 4b, 4c, 6a and 7b displayed considerable activity against the microorganism. Compounds 3a, 3c, 4c, 5a-c, 6b and 7a-c had appreciable activity against S. aureus. Overall, compounds 4c, 6b and 7b are the most distinctive derivatives in the present study because of their remarkable anti-inflammatory potency and significant antibacterial activity. Furthermore, compounds 6b and 7b exhibited good selective inhibitory activity against COX-2 enzyme. Therefore, such compounds would represent a suitable template for the design of anti-inflammatory antimicrobial candidates with reasonable COX-2 selectivity.

Four series of pyrazolylbenzenesulfonamide derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for their anti-inflammatory activity using cotton pellet induced granuloma and carrageenan-induced rat paw edema bioassays. Moreover, COX-1 and COX-2 inhibitory activity, ulcerogenic effect and acute toxicity were also determined. Furthermore, the target compounds were screened for their in-vitro antimicrobial activity against Eischerichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans. Compounds 4-(3-Phenyl-4-cyano-1H-pyrazol-1-yl)benzenesulfonamide 9a and 4-(3-Tolyl-4-cyano-1H-pyrazol-1-yl)benzenesulfonamide 9b were not only found to be the most active dual anti-inflammatory antimicrobial agents in the present study with good safety margin and minimal ulcerogenic effect but also exhibited good selective inhibitory activity towards COX-2. A docking pose for 9a and 9b separately in the active site of the human COX-2 enzyme was also obtained. Therefore, these compounds would represent a fruitful matrix for the development of dual anti-inflammatory antimicrobial candidates with remarkable COX-2 selectivity.