The Official Journal of the Turkish Society Of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (KLİMİK)
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a strain of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, spread rapidly around the world and was defined as a pandemic on March 12, 2020, by the World Health Organization. As of June 2023, more than 767 million cases were confirmed globally, along with 6.9 million deaths. Read More
The global impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has been profound, affecting billions of lives worldwide. As of June 13, 2024, the virus has infected approximately 704 million people and led to a staggering death toll of 7 million. In the fight against this devastating virus, the development and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines have been identified (...) Read More
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a potentially life-threatening disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. Clinical findings of COVID-19 are ranged from asymptomatic to severe pneumoniae, acute respiratory distress syndrome, multiorgan failure and death. A severe COVID-19 course is associated with a higher inflammatory state (cytokine storm) due to the excessive release (...) Read More
Contact tracing has been recognized as a critical process in controlling infectious disease epidemics. Its objectives include early identification of potentially infectious cases and prevention of the emergence of new clusters. In the context of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, in-hospital contact-tracing efforts (...) Read More
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test is used in high-capacity laboratories in the diagnosis of COVID-19. On the other hand, rapid SARS-CoV-2 antigen tests require less technical expertise and laboratory capacity. Antigen tests, which are faster and cost-effective, are increasingly used in COVID-19 screening and diagnosis. This study aimed to compare the i-test (...) Read More
Elevated procalcitonin levels are associated with increased bacterial infection rates in children and adults. Identification of bacterial infection in previous studies has used procalcitonin thresholds of 0.5 ng/mL-1.0 ng/mL. Procalcitonin level elevations have been reported in COVID-19 patients (...) Read More
Acute lung injury and sepsis are among the severe clinical outcomes of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Risk factors raise fatality rates, increase the burden on countries’ healthcare facilities, and significantly increase health expenditures due to prolonged inpatient periods. Several studies have revealed a severe illness course in COVID-19 patients, especially in males, older age, and comorbid (...) Read More
After the World Health Organization (WHO) declared an end to COVID-19 as a global public health emergency on May 5, 2023, we have entered a new era in the pandemic, and most countries have already returned to normal life. This declaration was resulted from the 12-month downward trend of the pandemic, increased immunity due to the highly effective vaccines, decreased death rates, and decreased pressure on once overwhelmed (...) Read More
COVID-19, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), is a zoonotic infection that emerged in Wuhan province of China in December 2019. SARS-COV-2 is a Betacoronavirus that is classified in Riboviria realm, Nidovirales order, and Coronaviridae family (1). Although the fatality rate of SARS-CoV-2 (2.6%) is lower than SARS-CoV (11%) and MERS-CoV (35-50%), it was much more severe worldwide (...) Read More
In the COVID-19 pandemic, it is essential to estimate the immune responses to various COVID-19 vaccinations to estimate the efficacy of the vaccines. During the ongoing pandemic, different vaccine types and vaccination strategies affect the cellular and molecular elements of innate and adaptive immune systems. Therefore, testing the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in different vaccination (...) Read More
The first coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) case in Turkey was reported on March 11, 2020. The number of confirmed cases with symptoms increased afterward, reaching 5000 per day by mid-April. With the effect of mitigation measures, the number of daily cases started to decline, (...) Read More
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused more than 6 million deaths worldwide, and vaccination remains to be the most effective way to reduce the deaths in addition to infection control measures in the community. The Turkish Ministry of Health offered two types of vaccines (...) Read More
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a respiratory disease agent belonging to the Betacoronavirus genera. The genome of the virus translates into four major structural proteins, including spike (S), nucleocapsid (N), membrane (M), and envelop (E) proteins. During the pandemic, huge numbers of mutations (...) Read More
Vaccines to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection are the most promising and effective approach to curb the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to reduce hospitalizations and prevent mortality. In our country, the CoronaVac (Sinovac Biotech, China) vaccine started to be administered as of January 13, 2021, and the Comirnaty (BNT162b2, Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccine as (...) Read More
Psoriasis, a chronic inflammatory disease, has a multifactorial etiology, including genetic, environmental, and behavioral factors. Since psoriasis is an immune system-mediated disease, immunosuppressive agents and biological treatments are frequently used in its treatment; however, these agents are known to increase the risk of infection. This situation (...) Read More
The standard method to detect SARS-CoV-2 has been real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Regardless of its high sensitivity and specificity, this method has some drawbacks as it requires complex and expensive equipment, extensive user training, (...) Read More
COVID-19 is a fatal disease affecting all systems, especially the respiratory system. It manifests with different clinical characteristics, from asymptomatic infection to severe infection. Since its initial description, the disease has caused devastating effects and many deaths. Predictors of mortality (...) Read More
An acute respiratory syndrome (COVID-19), caused by a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), has spread from China worldwide and caused a pandemic that brought severe medical, social, and economic problems. The COVID-19 infection results in various clinical presentations ranging from an asymptomatic (...) Read More
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has caused more than 660 million cases and more than six million deaths worldwide (1). COVID-19 can cause different clinical situations ranging from asymptomatic to life-threatening infections. Patients (...) Read More
The world has been fighting against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) for more than two years, leading to more than 605 million cases and 6.4 million deaths as of September 11, 2022. Since the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) is the functional receptor for SARS-CoV-2, predominantly expressed by the alveoli (...) Read More