Mohiuddin S. Qazi

Bio: Mohiuddin S. Qazi is an academic researcher from Government Medical College, Nagpur. The author has contributed to research in topics: Medicine & Japanese encephalitis. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 2 publications receiving 56 citations.

Fluoroquinolone Therapy in Staphylococcus aureus Infections: Where Do We Stand?

Abstract: Aim: The study aimed to evaluate the utility of various commonly used fluoroquinolones against Staphylococcus aureus isolates. Materials and Methods: A total of 250 isolates of S. aureus were studied from different clinical specimens like blood, pus, wound swabs, sputum, ear swabs, and body fluids between November 2009 and December 2011. All the isolates were tested for their susceptibility to fluoroquinolones and other antimicrobial agents by Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method using criteria of standard zone of inhibition. Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) detection was done by cefoxitin disk diffusion method. The MRSA isolates were tested for minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) to vancomycin by E-test strips. All the MRSA strains were sent to National Staphylococcal Phage-typing Centre, Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi for phage typing. Results: A total of 107 strains of S. aureus (42.8%) were detected as MRSA. Multidrug resistance was observed among the MRSA strains more commonly than among the MSSA stains. Among the fluoroquinolones, maximum resistance in MRSA was seen to ciprofloxacin (92.5%), followed by ofloxacin (80.4%). None of the S. aureus isolates showed resistance to vancomycin and linezolid. The MICs of vancomycin for the MRSA tested ranged from 0.5 to 2 μg/ml. Phage typing pattern of 107 MRSA isolates revealed that 37 (34.6%) MRSA isolates were nontypeable and 70 (65.4%) were typeable. Conclusion: Ciprofloxacin can no longer be used in empirical therapy against MRSA infections. Use of other members of fluoroquinolone should be limited only to those strains that show laboratory confirmation of their susceptibility. Vancomycin remains the drug of choice to treat MRSA infections.

Effectiveness of Japanese encephalitis vaccination among children in central India

Abstract: Japanese encephalitis (JE) disease among children continues in central India despite vaccination implemented in the routine immunization program. Therefore, we planned to estimate the JE vaccination effectiveness among children by undertaking a 1:2 individually‐matched population‐based case‐control study from August 2018 to October 2020. The laboratory‐confirmed JE cases aged 1–15 years were enrolled along with neighborhood controls without fever and encephalitis matched on the residence area, age and sex. The JE vaccination history was enquired from parents and verified independently from the vaccination cards available at home and records at health facilities. We enrolled 35 JE cases and 70 matched controls. The vaccination effectiveness of 86.7% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 30.8–94.7) was estimated on the per‐protocol analysis of 31 case‐control sets. The screening method provided an effectiveness of 89.5% (CI: 78.9–94.7) on using the population vaccination coverage of 90% reported earlier in the same area. In conclusion, JE vaccination offered a moderate level of protection among children in JE medium‐endemic central India, similar to reports from high‐endemic areas in India. The operational aspects of vaccination program implementation need to be evaluated to assess the impact of vaccination on the disease burden of JE in medium‐endemic regions of India.

Coverage of Japanese encephalitis routine vaccination among children in central India

Abstract: We aimed to estimate the coverage of Japanese encephalitis (JE) vaccination in central India to help explain the continued occurrence of JE disease despite routine vaccination. We implemented a 30‐cluster survey for estimating the coverage of JE vaccination in the medium‐endemic areas implemented with JE vaccination in central India. The parents were enquired about the uptake of the JE vaccine by their children aged 2−6 years, followed by verification of the immunization cards at home along with reasons for non‐vaccination. Vaccination coverage was reported as a percentage with 95% confidence intervals (CI). We estimated high coverage of live‐attenuated SA 14‐14‐2 JE vaccination in Maharashtra (94.8%, 95% CI: 92.7−96.3) and Telangana (92.8%, 95% CI: 90.0−94.9). The vaccination card retention was 90.3% in Maharashtra and 70.4% in Telangana state. There were no gender differences in coverage in both states. A similar level of JE vaccination coverage was observed during the year 2013−2021 in both states. In Maharashtra, the maximum age‐wise coverage was 96.6% in the >60 months age category, whereas in Telangana it was in the <24 months age category (97.2%). The timeliness of JE vaccination was appropriate and similar in both states. We found a very good agreement between JE and measles‐rubella vaccinations administered simultaneously. The reasons for non‐vaccination were the shortage of vaccines and the parental migration for work. The coverage of JE vaccination was high in medium‐endemic regions in central India. Vaccination effectiveness studies may help further explain the continued incidence of JE.

Antibiotic Resistance and the MRSA Problem

Abstract: Staphylococcus aureus is capable of becoming resistant to all classes of antibiotics clinically available and resistance can develop through de novo mutations in chromosomal genes or through acquisition of horizontally transferred resistance determinants. This review covers the most important antibiotics available for treatment of S. aureus infections and a special emphasis is dedicated to the current knowledge of the wide variety of resistance mechanisms that S. aureus employ to withstand antibiotics. Since resistance development has been inevitable for all currently available antibiotics, new therapies are continuously under development. Besides development of new small molecules affecting cell viability, alternative approaches including anti-virulence and bacteriophage therapeutics are being investigated and may become important tools to combat staphylococcal infections in the future.

Plant-derived antimicrobials to fight against multi-drug-resistant human pathogens.

Abstract: Antibiotic resistance is becoming a pivotal concern for public health that has accelerated the search for new antimicrobial molecules from nature. Numbers of human pathogens have inevitably evolved to become resistant to various currently available drugs causing considerable mortality and morbidity worldwide. It is apparent that novel antibiotics are urgently warranted to combat these life-threatening pathogens. In recent years, there have been an increasing number of studies to discover new bioactive compounds from plant origin with the hope to control antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This review attempts to focus and record the plant-derived compounds and plant extracts against multi-drug-resistant (MDR) pathogens including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), MDR-Mycobacterium tuberculosis and malarial parasites Plasmodium spp. reported between 2005 and 2015. During this period, a total of 110 purified compounds and 60 plant extracts were obtained from 112 different plants. The plants reviewed in this study belong to 70 different families reported from 36 countries around the world. The present review also discusses the drug resistance in bacteria and emphasizes the urge for new drugs.

Plant Secondary Metabolites in the Battle of Drugs and Drug-Resistant Bacteria: New Heroes or Worse Clones of Antibiotics?

Abstract: Infectious diseases that are caused by bacteria are an important cause of mortality and morbidity in all regions of the world. Bacterial drug resistance has grown in the last decades, but the rate of discovery of new antibiotics has steadily decreased. Therefore, the search for new effective antibacterial agents has become a top priority. The plant kingdom seems to be a deep well for searching for novel antimicrobial agents. This is due to the many attractive features of plants: they are readily available and cheap, extracts or compounds from plant sources often demonstrate high-level activity against pathogens, and they rarely have severe side effects. The huge variety of plant-derived compounds provides very diverse chemical structures that may supply both the novel mechanisms of antimicrobial action and provide us with new targets within the bacterial cell. In addition, the rapid development of modern biotechnologies opens up the way for obtaining bioactive compounds in environmentally friendly and low-toxic conditions. In this short review, we ask the question: do antibacterial agents derived from plants have a chance to become a panacea against infectious diseases in the "post-antibiotics era".

Design, Synthesis, and Antimicrobial Activities of 1,2,3-Triazole Glycoside Clickamers.

Abstract: Bacterial resistance remains a significant threat and a leading cause of death worldwide, despite massive attempts to control infections. In an effort to develop biologically active antibacterial and antifungal agents, six novel aryl-substituted-1,2,3-triazoles linked to carbohydrate units were synthesized through the Cu(I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition CuAAC of substituted-arylazides with a selection of alkyne-functionalized sugars. The chemical structures of the new derivatives were verified using different spectroscopic techniques. The novel clicked 1,2,3-triazoles were evaluated for in vitro antibacterial activity against Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus and Gram-negative Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and the obtained results were compared with the activity of the reference antibiotic "Ampicillin". Likewise, in vitro antifungal activity of the new 1,2,3-triazoles was investigated against Candida albicans and Aspergillus niger using "Nystatin" as a reference drug. The results of the biological evaluation pointed out that Staphylococcus aureus was more susceptible to all of the tested compounds than other examined microbes. In addition, some tested compounds exhibited promising antifungal activity.