Enfermedades infecciosas clínicas: acceso abierto

Viral and Bacterial Coinfection in Patients with Neurological Disorders: An Analytical Cross-Sectional Study from Karachi

Abstract

Aneela Taj and Nusrat Jamil

To study the existence of coinfection of the meninges caused by Neisseria meningitidis, Herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1) and Herpes simplex virus-2 (HSV-2) in the CSF of patients admitted with neurological disorders. 92 CSF samples collected from patients having neurological ailments were subjected to the microbiological analysis for the detection of possible bacterial etiology. In order to screen the viral coinfection, DNA was extracted from the samples found positive for bacterial presence. Extracted DNA was amplified for the presence of glycoprotein G gene of HSV-1 and HSV-2. Of the 92 samples, 20 samples (21.7%) found infected with Neisseria meningitidis (Nm). PCR results highlighted that of this 20, 8 samples (40%) were found coinfected with both HSV-1 and HSV-2 in addition to the Nm. Whereas, 12 samples (60%) were found negative for the viral etiology. Moreover, out of 8 samples showed viral and bacterial conifection, 5 (62.5%) were from female patients. Whereas 3 (37.5%) were from male patients. Findings from present study provide a considerable evidence of existence of bacterial and viral i.e. Nm and HSVs coinfection in CSF of the patients with neurological disorders. Nonetheless, use of microbiological and molecular testing methods in medical diagnostic laboratories and hospitals are pivotal to differentiate between bacterial and viral meningitis and even detect coinfection of both etiologies.