Infection and Drug Resistance

BACKGROUND: Drug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections rapidly increased and contributed to life-threatening nosocomial infections; however, the distribution, species, drug susceptibility and dynamic trends of P. aeruginosa infection in China remained unclear. This study was conducted to better understand the epidemiological data of increased P. aeruginosa infections from 2016 to 2022 in a hospital in China. METHODS: This study involved 3301 patients infected with P...

BACKGROUND: Chlamydia abortus is generally considered as the main cause of ruminants abortion, but it rarely causes human infection resulting in abortion or pneumonia. CASE PRESENTATION: We report a case of male patient with pneumonia caused by Chlamydia abortus . Results of next generation sequencing (NGS) in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) indicated Chlamydia abortus infection. The patient was treated with intravenous infusion of doxycycline. The clinical symptoms of this patient were ameliorated significantly, and all these improvement were indicated by laboratory parameters significantly...

BACKGROUND: The transmission of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales pose a significant threat to global public health, which weakens the effectiveness of most antimicrobial agents. The aim of this study is to present the genomic characteristics of a multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli , which contains both bla KPC-2 and bla CTX-M-15 genes, discovered from a respiratory infection in China. METHODS: The antimicrobial susceptibility of E. coli isolate 488 was measured by using the broth microdilution method...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the transmission pathway of a MRSA prevalence in a pancreatic surgery ward in a Chinese teaching hospital. METHODS: Molecular epidemiology investigations were carried out combined PFGE, MLST, SCC mec typing and whole-genome sequencing for 20 successive MRSA isolates (2 isolates from the ward environment). Resistance and virulence genes were detected using specific PCR. Bacterial identification and AST were performed using the Vitek 2 Compact System...

BACKGROUND: Staphylococcus aureus is the bacteria that colonizes the nasal nares of health-care workers and serves as a reservoir for the spread of pathogen for subsequent infections, mainly Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus . However, there is a limited study conducted regarding this topic in Harar, Eastern Ethiopia. OBJECTIVE: The main objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus , associated factors and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns among health-care workers of public hospitals in Harar, Eastern Ethiopia from May 15 to July 30, 2021...

BACKGROUND: Pneumonia is inflammation of the lung. The Streptococcus pneumoniae ( S. pneumoniae ) is commensal in the upper airway and can cause infection to under-five children. The bacteria is gram-positive diplococci, catalase negative, and optochin sensitive. The bacteria is the leading cause of bacterial pneumonia among under-five children. No similar data is reported from the current study area. OBJECTIVE: To determine prevalence, antimicrobial drug resistance and associated factors of S...

OBJECTIVE: Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a zoonotic disease associated with a high fatality rate. CCHF is endemic in Afghanistan, and its morbidity and mortality have increased recently but there is limited data about the characteristics of fatal cases. We aimed to report the clinical and epidemiological features of fatal CCHF cases who were admitted to Kabul Referral Infectious Diseases (Antani) Hospital. METHODS: This is a retrospective cross-sectional study...

BACKGROUND: Helicobacter pylori is assumed to cause many gastric and extragastric diseases. We aimed to assess the possible association role of H. pylori in Otitis media with effusion (OME), nasal polyps and adenotonsillitis. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 186 patients with various ear, nose and throat diseases were included. The study comprised 78 children with chronic adenotonsillitis, 43 children with nasal polyps and 65 children with OME. OME patients were assigned to two subgroups: those who have and those who did not have adenoid hyperplasia...

BACKGROUND: The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) caused the latest pandemic and the most significant challenge in public health worldwide. Studying the longevity of naturally developed antibodies is highly important clinically and epidemiologically. This paper assesses the longevity of antibodies developed against nucleocapsid protein amongst our health-care workers. METHODS: This longitudinal cohort study was conducted at a tertiary hospital, Saudi Arabia...

BACKGROUND: Metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) is becoming increasingly extensive in diagnosing herpes simplex encephalitis (HSE). However, many HSE patients with normal cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) diagnosed by mNGS have been found during the clinical application. This study aimed to summarize and analyze the clinical characteristics, supplementary examinations, and prognosis of patients with HSE whose cerebrospinal fluid was confirmed to be normal by mNGS. METHODS: This retrospective study evaluated the clinical characteristics, auxiliary examinations, and patient prognosis of patients with HSE that were diagnosed by mNGS but had normal CSF...

PURPOSE: Exploring whether smoking is an influencing factor for the inconsistency between QuantiFERONTB Gold assay (QFT-GIT) and tuberculosis etiology. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The clinical data of patients who were confirmed positive for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) after undergoing QFT-GIT testing from September 2017 to August 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. Chi-square and rank-sum tests were used to compare the differences in characteristics between smokers and non-smokers...

BACKGROUND: Extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB), particularly tubercular lymphadenitis (TBLN), remains to pose a huge public health problem in Ethiopia. A significant number of TBLN patients who completed a full course anti-TB treatment regimen were reported to have enlarged lymph nodes and other TB-like clinical presentations. This could either be from a paradoxical reaction or microbiological relapse, possibly due to mono/multi-drug resistance. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the rate of mono and multidrug resistance patterns of Mycobacterium tuberculosis as a cause of the observed treatment failures in clinically diagnosed and anti-TB treatment (newly or previously)-initiated LN patients...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.2147/IDR.S406243.].

BACKGROUND: Late-onset meningitis infected by group B Streptococcus (GBS) continues to be a major cause of perinatal mortality, morbidity and long-term neurodevelopmental sequelae despite the implementation of universal screening, but its risk factors are not fully understood. CASE PRESENTATION: We reported a set of dizygotic twins and a pair of compatriot siblings diagnosed with late-onset GBS meningitis aggregating in two Chinese families. All of GBS strains were identified as serotype III CC17 with high homology between the strains within the same family, and the isolates from the compatriots identical to their mother's carriage...

BACKGROUND: Japanese spotted fever (JSF) is a rare disease, caused by Rickettsia japonica ; no case has been reported in Zhejiang Province, China. CASE PRESENTATION: An elderly woman presented to the hospital with abdominal pain and fever. Her condition rapidly worsened with severe complications, such as multiple organ failure and central nervous system damage. The presence of R. japonica was quickly detected by metagenomic next-generation sequencing. On the basis of combined clinical manifestations and laboratory results, critical JSF was diagnosed and treated with doxycycline...

PURPOSE: In patients with carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (CRGNB) infection, the impact of appropriate empirical antibiotic treatment (AEAT) initialized before culture results were available remains controversial. We aimed to investigate the effect of AEAT on the prognosis of critically ill patients with hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP) caused by CRGNB. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients with CRGNB-infected HAP and received empirical antibiotic treatment (EAT) for at least 3 days in the intensive care unit (ICU) of a tertiary teaching hospital in China from February 2017 to September 2021 were included in the retrospective cohort study...

OBJECTIVE: We aim to identify the clinical characteristics and outcome of vaccine breakthrough infection in critically ill COVID-19 patients and to compare the clinical course of disease between vaccinated and non-vaccinated patients. METHODS: A retrospective review of all adult patients aged ≥18 years admitted to the ICU in King Fahd Hospital of the University in Saudi Arabia with positive COVID-19 RT-PCR test between the period of January 1st to August 31st, 2021, were included...

BACKGROUND: This study aims to investigate the clinical characteristics of enterococcus-associated peritonitis in patients with peritoneal dialysis (PD). METHODS: In this retrospective study, patients with PD-associated enterococcal peritonitis (Group E) who were treated in our center between January 2010 and September 2020 were included. Patients with PD-associated streptococcus peritonitis (Group S) and patients with coagulase-negative staphylococcus peritonitis (Group CNS) were matched 1:1 as cohort-control groups...

PURPOSE: The SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant emerged and spread rapidly among the population in the early stage of China's normalized prevention and control in December 2022. Healthcare workers (HCWs) are particularly exposed to SARS-CoV-2, it is important to evaluate the impact of the omicron pandemic on HCWs in China. METHODS: A self-administered online survey was conducted on infected HCWs from four hospitals of Taizhou. A total of 748 HCWs received the survey via DingTalk, and 328 responded to the questionnaire...

Malaria is a global public health burden with an estimated 229 million cases reported worldwide in 2019. About 94% of the reported cases were recorded in the African region. About 200 different species of protozoa have been identified so far and among them, at least 13 species are known to be pathogenic to humans. The life cycle of the malaria parasite is a complex process comprising an Anopheles mosquito and a vertebrate host. Its pathophysiology is characterized by fever secondary to the rupture of erythrocytes, macrophage ingestion of merozoites, and/or the presence of antigen-presenting trophozoites in the circulation or spleen which mediates the release of tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α)...