Shariq Ahmed

• MBBS
• Medical Doctor at Aligarh Muslim University

Background: Infection prevention and control practices are critical in healthcare to reduce healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). In low-resource settings, limited trained personnel impede effective implementation. This study assessed a peer tutoring program in which nursing staff trained their peers in infection prevention and control. Method:...

Whole genome sequencing (WGS) has the potential to greatly enhance AMR (Anti-microbial Resistance) surveillance. To characterize the prevalent pathogens and dissemination of various AMR-genes, 73 clinical isolates were obtained from blood and respiratory tract specimens, were characterized phenotypically by VITEK-2 (bioMerieux), and 23 selected iso...

Orthodontic treatment can lead to significant changes in the oral microbiome, potentially resulting in dysbiosis associated with increased risk of gingivitis and caries. The complex hard-soft tissue structures in the mouth harbour a diverse bacterial community, with around 700 different species identified. Orthodontic appliances, such as fixed brac...

There has recently been a 6 to 17% rise in candida species infections in the central nervous system. Although Candida can cause infections in both immunocompetent and immunosuppressed individuals, disseminated candidiasis is mostly seen in patients with impaired immunity due to AIDS, diabetes, neutropenia, underlying malignancy, and extensive wound...

Dimorphic fungi, which exist in yeast form at 37 °C and hyphal at 22–25 °C, primarily cause pulmonary infections except for Sporothrix schenkii which infects the skin. Central Nervous system infections occur when there is dissemination of the disease mainly in immunosuppressed individuals. These organisms are generally found in warm and temperate r...

Objective: An unprecedented rise in mucormycosis cases; apparently called 'an epidemic within a pandemic' was seen worldwide. Therefore, the following study was conducted to know the epidemiology, underlying risk factors, diagnostic approach, and possible outcome of mucormycosis during the Covid-19 pandemic. Methods: A prospective observational...

Purpose Early diagnosis of extrapulmonary tuberculosis (TB) with simultaneous detection of rifampicin (RIF) resistance (RR) directly from the sample is a revolution brought by GeneXpert Mycobacterium TB (MTB/RIF) assay. Line probe assay (LPA) is not recommended for extrapulmonary/nonsputum specimens; GeneXpert MTB/RIF provides a diagnostic option f...

Objectives This study was conducted to compare the disease severity of COVID-19 in pregnant and nonpregnant females of reproductive age group and to evaluate the effect of COVID-19 on neonatal outcome. Materials and Methods The present prospective observational study was conducted at a tertiary care center in northern India over a period of 6 mont...

Klebsiella pneumoniae is one of the common cause of nosocomial outbreak. With the emergence of multi-drug resistance, clinical management has become a serious challenge. The present study is a comparative analysis of changing trends of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) between two outbreaks of Klebsiella pneumoniae in PICU occurring over a gap of 8 ye...

Human monkeypox (now termed as the “Mpox”) was considered a geographically isolated disease until recently, but the current spread of the disease over 110 locations around the world has created an environment of fear. This study was thus conducted to evaluate the knowledge and apprehensions about the ongoing outbreak of Monkeypox among the medical...

Emerging and re-emerging zoonoses of diverse etiologies have caused significant morbidity and mortality recently. In the past two decades, several viral zoonoses, such as Bird flu, Ebola hemorrhagic fever, Hantavirus infection, Nipah virus disease, Rift Valley fever, Swine flu, West Nile fever, SARS, MERS, COVID-19 etc., have emerged from different...

Objectives: Lymphadenopathy is a common finding in children and poses a diagnostic dilemma. There are various conventional methods for the diagnosis of tubercular lym- phadenopathy with some newer methods like GeneXpert Assay recently introduced. This study emphasizes the role of newer diagnostic methods and a detailed clinicopathological profile o...

Purpose: Leptospirosis is a tropical zoonotic illness, in which the role of immune response in the pathogenesis is proven but poorly understood. Response of cytokines is said to play a key role in disease progression and pathogenesis. There are proven studies on pro-inflammatory cytokines like TNFα, IL-6 and anti-inflammatory like IL-10 in human le...

The aim of this study is exploring antibiotics resistance patterns and commonly existing bla genes (blaCTX-M, blaTEM, blaSHV, blaAmpC and blaNDM-1) in the gut flora of animals (cattle and poultry) and healthy human volunteers. We also compared the antibiotics resistance rates and patterns, and bla genes, between the isolated human and animal bacter...

Antibiotic resistance has largely been studied in the context of clinical settings, but subsequently with time it is being realized that bacteria present in the natural environment can be resistant to a large number of antibiotics, which make us ponder that antibiotic resistance in bacteria encountered clinically may have originated in environmenta...

Introduction: Candidemia is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in hospitalized patients, especially pediatric population, justifying the importance of adequate antifungal therapy. Immunocompromised patients, preterm neonates, elderly patients and patients admitted to intensive care units are at higher risk of invasive candidiasis infections....

Abstract Introduction: The increasing prevalence of the multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria and the lack of new antibiotics to combat them have led to rekindled interest in colistin, a bactericidal antibiotic that was used in the 1960s for treatment of infections caused by Gram-negative bacilli. Colistin is used as a salvage therapy for mult...

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major global health problem. India accounts for the one-fourth of the global TB burden. For resource-limited countries like India having high burden of TB, smear microscopy is the most commonly used method for microbiological diagnosis. Although culture being highly sensitive and specific method, it is time-c...

Background: The prevalence of multidrug-resistant-tuberculosis (MDR-TB) among new and previously treated cases is increasing worldwide as well as in India. Rapid detection of MDR-TB allows the establishment of an effective treatment regimen; minimizes the risk of further resistance, and limits the spread of drug-resistant strains. Early diagnosis...

Background: Isoniazid (INH) and rifampicin (Rif) are the key first-line antituberculosis drugs, and resistance to these drugs i.e., multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), is likely to result in treatment failure and poor clinical outcomes. India has the highest burden of TB and MDR-TB in the world, disproportionately high even for India's pop...

Introduction: Urinary tract infection (UTI) continues to be the most common infection diagnosed in outpatients as well as in hospitalized patients. Citrobacter spp. is an emerging urinary pathogen. The present study assessed the prevalence and antibiotic sensitivity pattern of Citrobacter spp. in patients admitted to or attending outpatient departm...