Articles

Systematic review and meta-analysis of mortality of patients infected with carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae

Carbapenem resistant K. pneumoniae (CRKP) has aroused widespread attention owing to its very limited therapeutic options, and this strain has increased rapidly in recent years. Although it is accepted that drug r...

Authors: Liangfei Xu, Xiaoxi Sun and Xiaoling Ma

Killing of Serratia marcescens biofilms with chloramphenicol

Serratia marcescens is a Gram-negative bacterium with proven resistance to multiple antibiotics and causative of catheter-associated infections. Bacterial colonization of catheters mainly...

Authors: Christopher Ray, Anukul T. Shenoy, Carlos J. Orihuela and Norberto González-Juarbe

Activity of AMP2041 against human and animal multidrug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical isolates

Antimicrobial resistance is a growing threat to public health. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a relevant pathogen causing human and animal infections, frequently displaying high levels of resistance to commonly used a...

Authors: Clotilde Silvia Cabassi, Andrea Sala, Davide Santospirito, Giovanni Loris Alborali, Edoardo Carretto, Giovanni Ghibaudo and Simone Taddei

Antibiotic resistance and biofilm production among the strains of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from pus/wound swab samples in a tertiary care hospital in Nepal

The increasing drug resistance along with inducible clindamycin resistance, methicillin resistance and biofilm production among the strains of Staphylococcus aureus are present as the serious problems to the succ...

Authors: Ankit Belbase, Narayan Dutt Pant, Krishus Nepal, Bibhusan Neupane, Rikesh Baidhya, Reena Baidya and Binod Lekhak

Higher atypical enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (a-EPEC) bacterial loads in children with diarrhea are associated with PCR detection of the EHEC factor for adherence 1/lymphocyte inhibitory factor A (efa1/lifa) gene

Typical enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (t-EPEC) are known to cause diarrhea in children but it is uncertain whether atypical EPEC (a-EPEC) do, since a-EPEC lack the bundle-forming pilus (bfp) gene that encodes...

Authors: Robert Slinger, Kimberley Lau, Michael Slinger, Ioana Moldovan and Francis Chan

Occurrence of bla _DHA-1 mediated cephalosporin resistance in Escherichia coli and their transcriptional response against cephalosporin stress: a report from India

Treatment alternatives for DHA-1 harboring strains are challenging as it confers resistance to broad spectrum cephalosporins and may further limit treatment option when expressed at higher levels. Therefore, t...

Authors: Birson Ingti, Deepjyoti Paul, Anand Prakash Maurya, Debajyoti Bora, Debadatta Dhar Chanda, Atanu Chakravarty and Amitabha Bhattacharjee

Mycobacterium goodii endocarditis following mitral valve ring annuloplasty

Mycobacterium goodii is an infrequent human pathogen which has been implicated in prosthesis related infections and penetrating injuries. It is often initially misidentified as a gram-...

Authors: Rohan B. Parikh and Matthew Grant

Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans osteomyelitis in a 12 year old boy: case report emphasizing the importance of tissue culture, and review of literature

Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans most commonly causes periodontitis but has been reported to infect heart valves, soft tissue, brain and lungs, and distal bones. Osteomyelitis dis...

Authors: Ketaki Sharma, Poonam Mudgil, John S. Whitehall and Iain Gosbell

A super-infection in the cornea caused by Stemphylium, Acremonium, and α-Streptococcus

Polymicrobial keratitis with fungus and bacteria can lead to blindness and is challenging to treat. Here, we introduce a case of fungal keratitis caused by two different strains in addition to definite bacteri...

Authors: Fumika Hotta, Hiroshi Eguchi, Keiko Nishimura, Masahiro Kogiso, Mayumi Ishimaru, Shunji Kusaka, Yoshikazu Shimomura and Takashi Yaguchi

Pandemics, pathogenicity and changing molecular epidemiology of cholera in the era of global warming

Vibrio cholerae, a Gram-negative, non-spore forming curved rod is found in diverse aquatic ecosystems around the planet. It is classified according to its major surface antigen into ar...

Authors: Fazle Rabbi Chowdhury, Zannatun Nur, Nazia Hassan, Lorenz von Seidlein and Susanna Dunachie

Cryptococcal meningoencephalitis in HIV/AIDS: when to start antiretroviral therapy?

Authors: Carlos Franco-Paredes, Daniel B. Chastain, Alfonso J. Rodriguez-Morales and Luis A. Marcos

Brucella melitensis VirB12 recombinant protein is a potential marker for serodiagnosis of human brucellosis

The numerous drawbacks of current serological tests for diagnosis of brucellosis which mainly results from cross reactivity with LPS from other gram-negative bacteria have generated an increasing interest to f...

Authors: Shiva Mirkalantari, Amir-Hassan Zarnani, Mahboobeh Nazari, Gholam Reza Irajian and Nour Amirmozafari

Stryphnodendron adstringens and purified tannin on Pythium insidiosum: in vitro and in vivo studies

Pythium insidiosum is the etiological agent of pythiosis, an emerging life-threatening infectious disease in tropical and subtropical regions. The pathogen is a fungus-like organism re...

Authors: Rodrigo Trolezi, Juliana Maziero Azanha, Natália Rodrigues Paschoal, Jéssica Luana Chechi, Marcelo José Dias Silva, Viciany Eric Fabris, Wagner Vilegas, Ramon Kaneno, Ary Fernandes Junior and Sandra de Moraes Gimenes Bosco

Hematologic manifestations of babesiosis

Babesiosis, a zoonotic parasitic infection transmitted by the Ixodes tick, has become an emerging health problem in humans that is attracting attention worldwide. Most cases of human babesiosis are reported in...

Authors: Tamer Akel and Neville Mobarakai

Bacteriological water quality in school’s drinking fountains and detection antibiotic resistance genes

The fecal coliform can contaminate water of human consumption causing problems to public health. Many of these microorganisms may contain plasmid and transfer them to other bacteria. This genetic material may ...

Authors: Denize Gomes Freitas, Rassan Dyego Romão Silva, Luis Artur Mendes Bataus, Mônica Santiago Barbosa, Carla Afonso da Silva Bitencourt Braga and Lilian Carla Carneiro

Antimicrobial resistance in coagulase-negative staphylococci from Nigerian traditional fermented foods

Coagulase-negative staphylococci have become increasingly recognized as the etiological agent of some infections. A significant characteristic of coagulase-negative staphylococci especially strains isolated fr...

Authors: P. T. Fowoyo and S. T. Ogunbanwo

Surveillance of life-long antibiotics: a review of antibiotic prescribing practices in an Australian Healthcare Network

The rise of antimicrobial use in the twentieth century has significantly reduced morbidity due to infection, however it has also brought with it the rise of increasing resistance. Some patients are on prolonge...

Authors: Jillian S. Y. Lau, Christopher Kiss, Erika Roberts, Kylie Horne, Tony M. Korman and Ian Woolley

Anti-staphylococcal activity resulting from epithelial lining fluid (ELF) concentrations of amikacin inhale administered via the pulmonary drug delivery system

Amikacin inhale (BAY41-6551), a unique drug—device combination of a specially formulated drug solution and a pulmonary drug delivery system device (AMK-I) is currently under phase III study as an adjunctive th...

Authors: Islam M. Ghazi, Mordechai Grupper and David P. Nicolau

The occurrence of ESBL-producing Escherichia coli carrying aminoglycoside resistance genes in urinary tract infections in Saudi Arabia

The infection and prevalence of extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBLs) is a worldwide problem, and the presence of ESBLs varies between countries. In this study, we investigated the occurrence of plasmid-media...

Authors: Essam J. Alyamani, Anamil M. Khiyami, Rayan Y. Booq, Majed A. Majrashi, Fayez S. Bahwerth and Elena Rechkina

Assessment of antibiotic resistance in Klebsiella pneumoniae exposed to sequential in vitro antibiotic treatments

Bacteria treated with different classes of antibiotics exhibit changes in susceptibility to successive antibiotic treatments. This study was designed to evaluate the influence of sequential antibiotic treatmen...

Authors: Jeongjin Kim, Ara Jo, Ekachai Chukeatirote and Juhee Ahn

Genetic elements associated with antimicrobial resistance among avian pathogenic Escherichia coli

Avian-pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) are pathogenic strains of E. coli that are responsible for one of the most predominant bacterial disease affecting poultry worldwide called avian colibacillosis. This stud...

Authors: Amal Awad, Nagah Arafat and Mohamed Elhadidy

A prospective observational cohort study in primary care practices to identify factors associated with treatment failure in Staphylococcus aureus skin and soft tissue infections

The incidence of outpatient visits for skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) has substantially increased over the last decade. The emergence of community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (...

Authors: Grace C. Lee, Ronald G. Hall, Natalie K. Boyd, Steven D. Dallas, Liem C. Du, Lucina B. Treviño, Sylvia B. Treviño, Chad Retzloff, Kenneth A. Lawson, James Wilson, Randall J. Olsen, Yufeng Wang and Christopher R. Frei

Management of infection by the Zika virus

A panel of national experts was convened by the Brazilian Infectious Diseases Society in order to organize the national recommendations for the management of zika virus infection. The focus of this document is...

Authors: Melissa Barreto Falcao, Sergio Cimerman, Kleber Giovanni Luz, Alberto Chebabo, Helena Andrade Brigido, Iza Maria Lobo, Artur Timerman, Rodrigo Nogueira Angerami, Clovis Arns da Cunha, Helio Arthur Bacha, Jesse Reis Alves, Alexandre Naime Barbosa, Ralcyon Francis Teixeira, Leonardo Weissmann, Priscila Rosalba Oliveira, Marco Antonio Cyrillo…

Bibliometric analysis of global scientific research on carbapenem resistance (1986–2015)

Antimicrobial resistance is a global public health challenge and carbapenem resistance, in particular, is considered an urgent global health threat. This study was carried out to give a bibliometric overview o...

Authors: Waleed M. Sweileh, Naser Y. Shraim, Samah W. Al-Jabi, Ansam F. Sawalha, Adham S. AbuTaha and Sa’ed H. Zyoud

Rapid screening for antibiotic resistance elements on the RNA transcript, protein and enzymatic activity level

The emerging threat posed by antibiotic resistance has affected public health systems all over the world. Surveillance of resistant bacteria in clinical settings and identifying them in mixed cultures is of pa...

Authors: Alexander Rohde, Jens Andre Hammerl and Sascha Al Dahouk

Extraction of total nucleic acids from bacterial isolates using the bioMérieux NucliSENS easyMAG total nucleic acid extractor

The BioMerieux NucliSENS easyMAG total nucleic acid extractor was evaluated for use on bacterial isolates in the clinical microbiology laboratory. Forty eight isolates were extracted, yielding quantifiable amo...

Authors: Eleanor A. Powell and Joel E. Mortensen

Molecular characterization of Staphylococcus aureus isolates from various healthcare institutions in Nairobi, Kenya: a cross sectional study

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) has established itself over the years as a major cause of morbidity and mortality both within the community and in healthcare settings. Methicillin re...

Authors: Geoffrey Omuse, Kristien Nel Van Zyl, Kim Hoek, Shima Abdulgader, Samuel Kariuki, Andrew Whitelaw and Gunturu Revathi

Ethnomedicines and anti-parasitic activities of Pakistani medicinal plants against Plasmodia and Leishmania parasites

Leishmaniasis and malaria are the two most common parasitic diseases and responsible for large number of deaths per year particularly in developing countries like Pakistan. Majority of Pakistan population rely...

Authors: Akash Tariq, Muhammad Adnan, Rahila Amber, Kaiwen Pan, Sakina Mussarat and Zabta Khan Shinwari

Emerging azithromycin-resistance among the Neisseria gonorrhoeae strains isolated in Hungary

In the 1990s, azithromycin became the drug of choice for many infectious diseases but emerging resistance to the drug has only been reported in the last decade. In the last 5 years, the National Neisseria gonorrh...

Authors: Alexandra Brunner, Eva Nemes-Nikodem, Csaba Jeney, Dora Szabo, Marta Marschalko, Sarolta Karpati and Eszter Ostorhazi

Smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis and associated factors among homeless individuals in Dessie and Debre Birhan towns, Northeast Ethiopia

Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the globe’s deadliest communicable diseases. The homeless individuals are at high risk to acquire TB and multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB), because of their poor living conditio...

Authors: Tsedale Semunigus, Belay Tessema, Setegn Eshetie and Feleke Moges

Trends in paediatric and adult bloodstream infections at a Ghanaian referral hospital: a retrospective study

Bloodstream infections (BSI) are life-threatening emergencies. Identification of the common pathogens and their susceptibility patterns is necessary for timely empirical intervention.

Authors: Noah Obeng-Nkrumah, Appiah-Korang Labi, Naa Okaikor Addison, Juliana Ewuramma Mbiriba Labi and Georgina Awuah-Mensah

A combination of silver nanoparticles and visible blue light enhances the antibacterial efficacy of ineffective antibiotics against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are potential antimicrobials agents, which can be considered as an alternative to antibiotics for the treatment of infections caused by multi-drug resistant bacteria. The antimicro...

Authors: Fatma Elzahraa Akram, Tarek El-Tayeb, Khaled Abou-Aisha and Mohamed El-Azizi

Development of a fast and low-cost qPCR assay for diagnosis of acute gas pharyngitis

Group A streptococci (GAS) are the most common bacterial cause of acute pharyngitis and account for 15–30 % of cases of acute pharyngitis in children and 5–10 % of cases in adults. In this study, a real-time q...

Authors: Mustafa Kolukirik, Mesut Yılmaz, Orhan Ince, Canan Ketre, Ayşe Istanbullu Tosun and Bahar K. Ince

Performance evaluation of a rapid whole-blood immunoassay for the detection of IgG antibodies against Helicobacter pylori in daily clinical practice

A growing number of rapid Helicobacter pylori antibody tests are commercially available now, however, some of these tests are often used without sufficient evaluation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the pe...

Authors: Dietmar Enko, Gabriele Halwachs-Baumann, Robert Stolba, Ortrun Rössler and Gernot Kriegshäuser

Comparison of methods for the identification of microorganisms isolated from blood cultures

Bloodstream infections are responsible for thousands of deaths each year. The rapid identification of the microorganisms causing these infections permits correct therapeutic management that will improve the pr...

Authors: Aydir Cecília Marinho Monteiro, Carlos Magno Castelo Branco Fortaleza, Adriano Martison Ferreira, Ricardo de Souza Cavalcante, Alessandro Lia Mondelli, Eduardo Bagagli and Maria de Lourdes Ribeiro de Souza da Cunha

Reviewer acknowledgement 2015

Authors: Hakan Leblebicioglu

Antimicrobial nodule-specific cysteine-rich peptides disturb the integrity of bacterial outer and inner membranes and cause loss of membrane potential

Certain legume plants produce a plethora of AMP-like peptides in their symbiotic cells. The cationic subgroup of the nodule-specific cysteine-rich (NCR) peptides has potent antimicrobial activity against gram-...

Authors: Kata R. Mikuláss, Krisztina Nagy, Balázs Bogos, Zsolt Szegletes, Etelka Kovács, Attila Farkas, György Váró, Éva Kondorosi and Attila Kereszt

ChikDenMaZika Syndrome: the challenge of diagnosing arboviral infections in the midst of concurrent epidemics

Authors: Alberto E. Paniz-Mondolfi, Alfonso J. Rodriguez-Morales, Gabriela Blohm, Marilianna Marquez and Wilmer E. Villamil-Gomez

Efficacy and safety profile of linezolid in the treatment of multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) tuberculosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Treatment options for drug-resistant tuberculosis are still limited. Linezolid has been recommended for treatment of patients with multidrug-resistant (MDR) or extensively-drug-resistant (XDR) tuberculosis, al...

Authors: Akosua Adom Agyeman and Richard Ofori-Asenso

Performance evaluation of three automated identification systems in detecting carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae

Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) is prevalent around the world. Rapid and accurate detection of CRE is urgently needed to provide effective treatment. Automated identification systems have been widel...

Authors: Qingwen He, Weiyuan Chen, Liya Huang, Qili Lin, Jingling Zhang, Rui Liu and Bin Li

In vitro potency of amikacin and comparators against E. coli, K. pneumoniae and P. aeruginosa respiratory and blood isolates

The purpose of this study was to define the potency of amikacin and comparator agents against a collection of blood and respiratory nosocomial isolates implicated in ICU based pulmonary infections gathered fro...

Authors: Christina A. Sutherland, Jamie E. Verastegui and David P. Nicolau

Short-term treatment outcomes in human immunodeficiency virus type-1 and hepatitis B virus co-infections

Co-infection of HIV with HBV is common in West Africa but little information is available on the effects of HBV on short-term therapy for HIV patients. A 28 day longitudinal study was conducted to examine shor...

Authors: Kwamena William Coleman Sagoe, Kwabena Obeng Duedu, Francesca Ziga, Afrakoma Adjoa Agyei, Theophilus Korku Adiku, Margaret Lartey, Julius Abraham Addo Mingle and Max Arens

Phenotypic and genetic changes in the life cycle of small colony variants of Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium induced by streptomycin

Small colony variants (SCVs), constituting a slow-growing subpopulation of bacteria that facilitates persistence in lethal environmental conditions, are able to revert to the phenotype of rapid growth for furt...

Authors: Wanli Li, Yinghui Li, Yarong Wu, Yujun Cui, Yao Liu, Xiaolu Shi, Qian Zhang, Qiongcheng Chen, Qun Sun and Qinghua Hu

Identification and antifungal susceptibility of Candida species isolated from bloodstream infections in Konya, Turkey

In this study, our aim was to identify Candida species isolated from bloodstream infections and to determine their susceptibilities to various antifungal agents to demonstrate the local resistance profiles and to...

Authors: Hatice Turk Dagi, Duygu Findik, Cigdem Senkeles and Ugur Arslan

Chemical structure and pharmacokinetics of novel quinolone agents represented by avarofloxacin, delafloxacin, finafloxacin, zabofloxacin and nemonoxacin

Quinolones are potent antimicrobial agents with a basic chemical structure of bicyclic ring. Fluorine atom at position C-6 and various substitutions on the basic quinolone structure yielded fluoroquinolones, n...

Authors: Bela Kocsis, J. Domokos and D. Szabo

Characterization of clinical extensively drug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the Hunan province of China

Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains that are classed as extensively drug resistant (XDR-PA) are resistant to all antibiotics except for one or two classes and are frequently the cause of ha...

Authors: Jun Li, Mingxiang Zou, Qingya Dou, Yongmei Hu, Haichen Wang, Qun Yan and Wen’ en Liu

Unsolved matters in leprosy: a descriptive review and call for further research

Leprosy, a chronic mycobacterial infection caused by Mycobacterium leprae, is an infectious disease that has ravaged human societies throughout millennia. This ancestral pathogen causes disfiguring cutaneous lesi...

Authors: Carlos Franco-Paredes and Alfonso J. Rodriguez-Morales

What proportion of Salmonella Typhi cases are detected by blood culture? A systematic literature review

Blood culture is often used in definitive diagnosis of typhoid fever while, bone marrow culture has a greater sensitivity and considered reference standard. The sensitivity of blood culture measured against bo...

Authors: Vittal Mogasale, Enusa Ramani, Vijayalaxmi V. Mogasale and JuYeon Park

Occurrence of co-existing bla _VIM-2 and bla _NDM-1 in clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa from India

bla _VIM-2 harboring Pseudomonas aeruginosa has been reported worldwide and considered as the most prevalent metallo-β-lactamase after NDM which are found hor...

Authors: Deepjyoti Paul, Debadatta Dhar, Anand Prakash Maurya, Shweta Mishra, Gauri Dutt Sharma, Atanu Chakravarty and Amitabha Bhattacharjee

Evaluation of the SLOMYCO Sensititre^® panel for testing the antimicrobial susceptibility of Mycobacterium marinum isolates

The agar dilution method is currently considered as the reference method for Mycobacterium marinum drug susceptibility testing (DST). As it is time-consuming, alternative methods, such as the E-test, were evaluat...

Authors: Marion Chazel, Hélène Marchandin, Nicolas Keck, Dominique Terru, Christian Carrière, Michael Ponsoda, Véronique Jacomo, Gilles Panteix, Nicolas Bouzinbi, Anne-Laure Bañuls, Marc Choisy, Jérôme Solassol, Alexandra Aubry and Sylvain Godreuil