Profile of drug resistance mutations among HIV-1-infected Tunisian subjects failing antiretroviral therapy.

Three years after the introduction of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Tunisia (North Africa), we aimed to determine the prevalence of drug resistance mutations in Tunisian HIV-1-infected patients failing ART. Plasma samples of 80 patients were tested for genotypic resistance using two distinct line probe assays, LiPA HIV-1 reverse transcriptase RT and LiPA HIV-1 protease assay. Of the 80 patients, 82.

The role of glutathione transferases M1 and T1 in individual susceptibility to bladder cancer in a Tunisian population.

Background: Susceptibility to bladder cancer is thought to depend on interplay between genetic factors and environmental chemical carcinogens.

Aim: This study seeks to determine the role of the glutathione transferases M1 and T1 null genotypes (GSTM1*0 and GSTT1*0) in individual susceptibility to bladder cancer in a Tunisian population.

Method: Sixty-two patients with transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder cancer and 79 controls were examined with respect to the frequency of GSTM1 and GSTT1 null genotypes.

Differences in Tunisian adolescents' knowledge, misconceptions and attitudes towards HIV/AIDS from 1997 to 2002.

Surveys were conducted to estimate the extent to which knowledge, misconceptions and attitudes of adolescents in Tunisia towards HIV/AIDS had changed after a period of five years. A population of school-going adolescents of both sexes, age 16 to 20, was sampled in 1997 and again in 2002. We found that HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases became better known, there was more tolerance expressed for people living with AIDS, and the use of condoms was more positively judged.

The Developing Country Reactions to Biomedical Techniques and Plant Biotechnology: The Tunisian Experience.

In the present study we present the conditions offered to biotechnology development in Tunisia and we compare three main biotechnology applications which raise ethical and health problems: organ transplant, assisted reproductive techniques, and genetically modified organisms. We try to identify factors that have allowed success of the first two applications and failure of the latter. Conditions offered to biotechnology in other African countries are also discussed.

The significance of combining World Health Organization and Center for Disease Control criteria to resolve indeterminate human immunodeficiency virus type-1 Western blot results.

A total of 466 repeatedly reactive HIV-1 blood samples evidenced by enzyme immunoassay were analyzed by the Western blot method and interpreted according to WHO and CDC criteria. Discordant and indeterminate samples were further analyzed by PCR. When the Western blot result was classified as indeterminate, according to both WHO and CDC criteria, the PCR test was always negative.

[Attitude of health personnel to organ donation and transplantation].

It was shown that the rate of organ donation depends not only on the attitudes of the public but also of the predisposition of the health care staff. An opinion poll has interested 702 physicians, nurses and technicians. It comes out from this study that 59% of the sample are favorable to the organ donation.

Identification of an immunodominant 32-kilodalton membrane protein of Leishmania donovani infantum promastigotes suitable for specific diagnosis of Mediterranean visceral leishmaniasis.

Sera from 35 patients suffering from Mediterranean visceral leishmaniasis (caused by Leishmania donovani infantum) and 59 patients with various forms of cutaneous leishmaniasis prevalent in the sub-Mediterranean countries (caused by Leishmania major, L. donovani infantum, or Leishmania tropica) were tested by immunoblotting and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) with both membrane and soluble antigens prepared from L. donovani infantum parasites.