Infection and Drug Resistance

Background: Severe ventriculitis (SV) caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria is associated with high morbidity and mortality in neurosurgical patients. This study assessed the outcomes of patients with SV caused by Acinetobacter baumannii who were treated by intraventricular (IVT) lavage and colistin administration. Methods: This retrospective study included consecutive patients with SV caused by A. baumannii who were admitted at the Neurosurgical Department of Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital from January 2014 to September 2017...

Purpose: In 2012, the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) revised its breakpoints for drugs and species because of the increase in non- albicans Candida infections and their drug resistance. Following global trends, the non- albicans candidemia resistance rate has increased in Taiwan as well. To update the antifungal susceptibility of non- albicans candidemia isolates, we conducted a multicenter study using the revised break points. Patients and methods: Patients with non- albicans candidemia infections were identified at five tertiary hospitals in Taiwan from July 1, 2011, to June 30, 2014...

Vector-borne infectious diseases continue to be a major threat to public health. Although some prevention and treatment modalities exist for these diseases, resistance to such modalities, exacerbated by global climate change, remains a fundamental challenge. Developments in genomic engineering technologies present a new front in battling vector-borne illnesses; however, there is a lack of consensus over the scope and consequences of these approaches. In this article, we use malaria as a case study to address the developments and controversies surrounding gene drives, a novel genomic engineering technology...

Introduction: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the most common opportunistic pathogen associated with a broad range of infections, including cystic fibrosis, ocular, otitis media, and burn infections. The aim of this study was to show the frequency of the pilS2 gene, and its association with P. aeruginosa plasmid pKLC102 and PAPI-1 pathogenicity island among P. aeruginosa strains. Methods: The samples were collected from patients with cystic fibrosis, ocular, otitis media, and burn infections between January 2016 and November 2017...

Objectives: Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading cause of death from infectious diseases in the world, with an estimated 1.6 million deaths from TB in 2017. The objectives of this study were to determine drug resistance profiles of Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical isolates and to analyze the trends in drug-resistant and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) from 2008 to 2015 at a major hospital in Guizhou, a high-TB burden and resource-limited province of China. Patients and methods: A total of 462 clinical isolates were collected from patients with pulmonary TB during the period from January 2013 to December 2015 and used for determining drug resistance profiles against four first-line and six second-line anti-TB drugs, and the results were compared with those of two previous studies...

Background: Mannose-binding lectin (MBL) or mannose-binding protein (MBP), encoded by MBL2 gene and secreted by the liver, activates complement system through lectin pathway in innate immunity against the host's infection. Conflictingly, a number of MBL2 variants, rs1800450 (A>B), rs1800451 (A>C), rs5030737 (A>D), rs7096206 (Y>X), rs11003125 (H>L), and rs7095891 (P>Q) allele, have been found to be associated with compromised serum levels and pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) susceptibility...

[This corrects the article on p. 1189 in vol. 11, PMID: 30147347.].

Background: The conventional antibiotic regimen for community-acquired upper urinary tract infections with moderate severity in Thailand is parenteral ceftriaxone (CTRX) for several days followed by oral cephalosporin for 7-14 days. The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of oral sitafloxacin (STFX) with that of intravenous CTRX followed by oral cefdinir (CFDN) for the therapy of acute pyelonephritis (APN) and complicated urinary tract infection (cUTI). Methods: This open-label, randomized, controlled, noninferiority clinical trial included patients from nine centers across Thailand...

Purpose: This study investigated the clinical epidemiology, antimicrobial susceptibility, and molecular epidemiology of Corynebacterium striatum isolates. Patients and methods: An observational study was conducted at a university hospital in the Republic of Korea from August to December 2016. All subjects were patients who tested positive for C. striatum clinically. Clinical data were analyzed to evaluate the microbiological and genotypic characteristics of C. striatum strains...

Background: Capsular serotype K2 Klebsiella pneumoniae of sequence type (ST) 65 has been recognized as a hypervirulent clone. Simultaneous presence of different bla CTX-M genes has never been reported in this clone. In the present study, the genetic characteristics and virulence phenotype of a CTX-M-3 and CTX-M-14 coproducing ST65 K. pneumoniae human isolate, KP_06, that caused an intracranial infection, are evaluated. Methods: The potential virulence of KP_06 was assayed by in vitro and in vivo methods...

Backgrounds: The aim of this study was to evaluate both phenotypic and genotypic determinants of mupirocin resistance among methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and methicillin susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) strains recovered from different clinical samples of children who were admitted to the Children's Medical Center (CMC) Hospital, Tehran, Iran. Materials and methods: A total of 120 clinical isolates of S. aureus were collected from the microbiology laboratory of CMC Hospital...

Introduction: Acinetobacter baumannii is a gram-negative,opportunistic pathogen responsible for resistant nosocomial infections especially in the intensive care units (ICUS).One reason for the failure in the treatment of A. baumannii is its ability of develop resistance against several antimicrobials. combination of different antimicrobials can be used to overcome such a resistance. This study was done to evaluate the in vitro synergistic activity of colistin in combination with six different antimicrobials, including ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, imipenem, meropenem, ampicillin-sulbactam, and rifampin against A...

Objective: To genetically characterize clusters of virulence factors (VFs) among extended spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae and assess whether these clusters are associated with genetic determinants or clinical outcomes. Methods: One hundred forty-eight E. coli and 82 K . pneumoniae clinical isolates were obtained from 213 patients in Paris, France. Isolates underwent ESBL characterization, MultiLocus Sequence Typing (MLST) typing and phylogenetic group identification...

Introduction: Outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy is a safe, effective, and convenient way of administering antimicrobials for a wide variety of infections. So far there are no reports on the efficacy of outpatient antimicrobial therapy in Mexico. Our objective was to determine the outcomes, safety, and cost of outpatient ertapenem therapy (OET) in our hospital. Patients and methods: A case series of 99 patients that received intravenous OET was conducted...

Objectives: mcr-1 gene has been widely reported in the world. This study aimed to analyze the prevalence and molecular characteristics of mcr-1 gene in Salmonella typhimurium from Quzhou People's Hospital. Materials and methods: A total of 62 S. typhimurium isolates were isolated and preserved in our laboratory from 2007 to 2016. PCR was used to screen plasmid-mediated colistin resistance gene, mcr-1 . For mcr-1 -positive isolates, susceptibilities to colistin and other antibiotics were assessed using broth microdilution or agar dilution methods...

Background: Neisseria gonorrhoeae resistance to azithromycin has become a significant public health concern globally, and high-level azithromycin-resistant (HL-AzmR) isolates have emerged frequently. However, high-level azithromycin resistance is considered to be caused by mutated alleles of 23S rRNA gene at position 2059, and identification of HL-AzmR isolates mainly relies on agar dilution method or E-test method. This study aimed to assess the accuracy of the molecular assays targeting the mutation A2059G for identifying HL-AzmR isolates and thereby determine the association between the mutation and high-level azithromycin resistance...

Background: We performed a prospective study to investigate the association between pre-diagnosis exposure to fluoroquinolone (FQ) and laboratory testing results among tuberculosis (TB) patients. Patients and methods: Each TB-suspected patient provided sputum specimen for mycobacteria growth indicator tube (MGIT) culture and GeneXpert among pulmonary TB patients. Confirmed TB patients and clinically diagnosed TB patients were further enrolled in the final analysis...

Background: Sporothrix schenckii is a neglected fungal pathogen for the human being and other mammals. In several fungal systems, Och1 is a Golgi α1,6-mannosyltransferase with a key function in the synthesis of N -linked glycans; which are important elements during the host-fungus interplay. The role of OCH1 in fungal virulence seems to be species-specific, being an essential component for Candida albicans virulence and dispensable during the interaction of Aspergillus fumigatus with the host...

[This corrects the article on p. 1993 in vol. 11, PMID: 30464541.].

The landscape of rotavirus (RV) infection has changed substantially in recent years. Autoimmune triggering has been added to clinical spectrum of this pathology, which is now known to be much broader than diarrhea. The impact of RV vaccines in these other conditions is becoming a growing field of research. The importance of host genetic background in RV susceptibility has been revealed, therefore increasing our understanding of vaccine effectiveness and giving some clues about the limited efficacy of RV vaccines in low-income settings...