Effects of the Health Transformation Programme on tuberculosis burden in Turkey.

Objective: The Fifty-ninth Turkish Government announced an emergency action plan and embarked on a comprehensive health reform named "Health Transformation Program" (HTP) in 2003. This study investigated the effects of HTP on tuberculosis (TB) burden from 2003 to 2010 in Turkey.

Design: TB incidence, prevalence, mortality and case detection rates, treatment success and direct observed treatment strategy (DOTS) applications rate, and contribution of these applications in the success of the TB war were retrospectively investigated.

[Evaluation of Western Blot method for the detection of antibodies to Helicobacter pylori antigens in patients with gastric carcinoma and cases with epigastric complaints].

Helicobacter pylori proteins CagA (cytotoxin-associated gene A) and VacA (vacuolating cytotoxin A) are among the virulence factors of this species. CagA gene carrying H. pylori strains are particularly associated with gastric adenocarsinoma.

Evaluation of related with age of IFN-gamma levels of treated leprosy patients and their healthy relatives compared with a control group.

Objective: This study was to search how change with age of IFN-gamma (IFN-gamma) levels of leprosy patients who had received or still undergoing treatment, their healthy close relatives and healthy people.

Method: From a total of 39 patients, 28 had received leprosy treatment and recovered with some defects [17 Lepromatous Leprosy(LL), 7 Borderline Lepromatous (BL), 3 Borderlien Tuberculoid (BT), 1 Tuberculoid form (TT)] and 11 (9 LL, 2 BL) were undergoing therapy in a hospital at that moment. Close relatives of the patients included 39 people living with treated patients in the same house and the control group consisted of 39 healthy people.

Sperm motility changes after coincubation with various uropathogenic microorganisms: an in vitro experimental study.

Objective: We investigated the relationship between semen motility and various uropathogenic microorganisms.

Materials And Methods: Semen specimens from healthy donors were divided into portions and incubated with uropathogenic microorganisms in concentrations varying from 2 x 10 to 2 x 10(7) microorganisms/ml(-1). Uninfected suspensions of spermatozoa served as controls.

The effect of colchicine on the peritoneal membrane.

Peritoneal dialysis (PD) is a treatment modality for patients with renal failure. Peritoneal fibrosis is one of the most serious complications after long-term continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD). Histological studies in both humans and animals show that chronic peritoneal dialysis results in fibrosis of the peritoneal membrane.

Chronic hepatitis delta virus infection in Van region of eastern Turkey.

Background/aims: Hepatitis delta virus infection is an important cause of liver morbidity and mortality worldwide. In Eastern Turkey, hepatitis B virus infection is the major cause of chronic liver diseases. We aimed to research the role of hepatitis delta virus infection in chronic liver diseases related to hepatitis B virus infection in the Van region of Eastern Turkey.

Report of three children with leptospirosis in rural area of the east of Turkey.

Leptospirosis is a systemic infection usually producing fever with hepatorenal involvement, meningoencephalitis, and hemorrhage. In this article, we present three children between 10 and 13 years of age with leptospirosis. The purpose of this paper is to emphasize that leptospirosis is a problem in our country with farmers/cattle and that leptospirosis should be considered in certain ill children.