Articles

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Genetic characterization of TEM-type ESBL-associated antibacterial resistance in Enterobacteriaceae in a tertiary hospital in Ghana

Antibiotic resistance due to the presence of extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs) among Enterobacteriaceae is a worldwide problem. Data from Ghana regarding this resistance mechanism is limited. This study w...

Authors: Daniel Oduro-Mensah, Noah Obeng-Nkrumah, Evelyn Yayra Bonney, Ebenezer Oduro-Mensah, Kingsley Twum-Danso, Yaa Difie Osei and Sammy Tawiah Sackey

Comparison of molecular detection methods for pertussis in children during a state-wide outbreak

A state-wide pertussis outbreak occurred in Washington during the winter–spring months of 2012, concurrent with respiratory viral season. We compared performance characteristics of a laboratory-developed pertu...

Authors: X. Qin, D. M. Zerr, M. P. Kronman, A. L. Adler, J. E. Berry, S. Rich, A. M. Buccat, M. Xu and J. A. Englund

Comparative effectiveness of β-lactam versus vancomycin empiric therapy in patients with methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) bacteremia

Vancomycin may be inferior to β-lactams for the empiric treatment of methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) bacteremia. We compared empiric β-lactams to vancomycin to assess clinical outcomes in pat...

Authors: Davie Wong, Titus Wong, Marc Romney and Victor Leung

Enhancing pathogen identification in patients with meningitis and a negative Gram stain using the BioFire FilmArray^® Meningitis/Encephalitis panel

Meningitis with a negative cerebrospinal (CSF) Gram stain represents a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the performance of the BioFire FilmArray^® Meningitis/Encephali...

Authors: Susan H. Wootton, Elizabeth Aguilera, Lucrecia Salazar, Andrew C. Hemmert and Rodrigo Hasbun

Sphingobacterium spiritivorum infection in a patient with end stage renal disease on haemodialysis

Sphingobacterium spiritivorum is a microorganism that is ubiquitously found in the environment. However, it is rarely isolated from human clinical specimens. There are few reports to d...

Authors: Amit Gupta, Julie Logan, Nada Elhag and Mike Almond

De novo entecavir+adefovir dipivoxil+lamivudine triple-resistance mutations resulting from sequential therapy with adefovir dipivoxil, and lamivudine

Entecavir-resistance mutations are commonly induced by entecavir treatment in chronic hepatitis B patients. However, entecavir+adefovir dipivoxil+lamivudine triple-resistance mutations induced by sequential or...

Authors: Song Yang, Huichun Xing, Qi Wang, Xiaomei Wang, Shunai Liu and Jun Cheng

Early warning score: a dynamic marker of severity and prognosis in patients with Gram-negative bacteraemia and sepsis

Early Warning Score (EWS) is a physiological composite score of six bedside vital parameters, routinely used in UK hospitals. We evaluated the prognostic ability of EWS in Gram-negative bacteraemia causing sep...

Authors: Mahableshwar Albur, Fergus Hamilton and Alasdair P. MacGowan

A pilot study to assess bacterial and toxin reduction in patients with Clostridium difficile infection given fidaxomicin or vancomycin

To assess the effect of fidaxomicin and vancomycin on Clostridium difficile toxins and correlation with clinical and microbiologic outcomes.

Authors: Abrar K. Thabit, M. Jahangir Alam, Mohammed Khaleduzzaman, Kevin W. Garey and David P. Nicolau

Comparison of Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute and European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing guidelines for the interpretation of antibiotic susceptibility at a University teaching hospital in Nairobi, Kenya: a cross-sectional study

The Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) and the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) guidelines are the most popular breakpoint guidelines used in antimicrobial suscep...

Authors: Ali Kassim, Geoffrey Omuse, Zul Premji and Gunturu Revathi

Phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae in a tertiary-level reference hospital in Turkey

Enterobacteriaceae are among the most common pathogens that are responsible for serious community-acquired, hospital-acquired, and health-care associated infections. The emergence and ...

Authors: Irmak Baran and Neriman Aksu

Antimicrobial activity of mul-1867, a novel antimicrobial compound, against multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa

There is an urgent need for new antimicrobial compounds to treat various lung infections caused by multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MDR-PA).

Authors: George Tetz, Daria Vikina and Victor Tetz

Real-world daptomycin use across wide geographical regions: results from a pooled analysis of CORE and EU-CORE

Pooled data from two large registries, Cubicin^® Outcomes Registry and Experience (CORE; USA) and European Cubicin^® Outcomes Registry and Experience (EU-CORE; Europe, Latin America, and Asia), were analyzed to det...

Authors: R. Andrew Seaton, Armando Gonzalez-Ruiz, Kerry O. Cleveland, Kimberly A. Couch, Rashidkhan Pathan and Kamal Hamed

Parasitic contamination of fresh vegetables sold at central markets in Khartoum state, Sudan

Fresh vegetables are considered as vital nutrients of a healthy diet as they supply the body with essential supplements. The consumption of raw vegetables is the main way for transmission of intestinal parasit...

Authors: Mona Ali Mohamed, Emmanuel Edwar Siddig, Arwa Hassan Elaagip, Ali Mahmoud Mohammed Edris and Awad Ahmed Nasr

Can one size fit all? Approach to bacterial vaginosis in sub-Saharan Africa

Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is the most common vaginal disorder affecting women of reproductive age and is associated with increased risk of sexually transmitted infections such as human immunodeficiency syndrome...

Authors: Zenda Woodman

In vitro selection of Staphylococcus aureus mutants resistant to tigecycline with intermediate susceptibility to vancomycin

Tigecycline (TIG) is an antibiotic belonging to the glycylcyclines class and appears to be a good choice to fight infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus. To date, TIG exhibits good activity against this micro...

Authors: Melina Herrera, Sabrina Di Gregorio, Silvina Fernandez, Graciela Posse, Marta Mollerach and José Di Conza

Community acquired fungemia caused by Candida pulcherrima: diagnostic contribution of MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry

Community-onset candidemia constitute a distinct clinical entity the incidence of which is increasing. Contribution of non-albicans Candida species is rising.

Authors: Laurène Deconinck, Agnès Meybeck, Maxime Pradier, Pierre Patoz, Hugues Melliez and Eric Senneville

The expanding spectrum of modes of transmission of Zika virus: a global concern

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

Characterization of Pseudomonas aeruginosa with discrepant carbapenem susceptibility profile

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the most common nosocomial pathogen, notorious for its multidrug resistance and causes life threatening infections. Carbapenems were considered as the last resor...

Authors: Agila K. Pragasam, M. Raghanivedha, Shalini Anandan and Balaji Veeraraghavan

Is inhaled colistin beneficial in ventilator associated pneumonia or nosocomial pneumonia caused by Acinetobacter baumannii?

In the present study, our objective was to evaluate and compare the clinical and microbiological results in patients receiving systemic and systemic plus inhaled colistin therapy due to nosocomial pneumonia (N...

Authors: Tuna Demirdal, Ummu Sena Sari and Salih Atakan Nemli

Outbreak of plasmid-mediated NDM-1-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae ST105 among neonatal patients in Yunnan, China

In the past decade, the carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) have been reported worldwide. Emergence of carbapenemase-producing strains among Enterobacteriaceae has been a challenge for treatment of c...

Authors: Rui Zheng, Qian Zhang, Yidan Guo, Yue Feng, Li Liu, Amei Zhang, Yue Zhao, Xiaoyu Yang and Xueshan Xia

Toxigenic profile of methicillin-sensitive and resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolated from special groups

Staphylococcus aureus is characterized by its pathogenicity and high prevalence, causing disease in both healthy and immunocompromised individuals due to its easy dissemination. This f...

Authors: Camila Sena Martins de Souza, Carlos Magno Castelo Branco Fortaleza, Claudia Lima Witzel, Mônica Silveira, Mariana Fávero Bonesso, Silvio Alencar Marques and Maria de Lourdes Ribeiro de Souza da Cunha

Intravenous Colistin in the treatment of multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter in neonates

Neonatal sepsis caused by multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacteria has been reported in different parts of the world. It is a major threat to neonatal care, carrying a high rate of morbidity and mortality. W...

Authors: Manar Al-lawama, Haytham Aljbour, Asma Tanash and Eman Badran

Mortality predictors of Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia: a prospective multicenter study

Staphylococcus aureus is one of the causes of both community and healthcare-associated bacteremia. The attributable mortality of S. aureus bacteremia (SAB) is still higher and predicto...

Authors: Mesut Yilmaz, Nazif Elaldi, İlker İnanç Balkan, Ferhat Arslan, Ayşe Alga Batırel, Mustafa Zahir Bakıcı, Mustafa Gokhan Gozel, Sevil Alkan, Aygül Doğan Çelik, Meltem Arzu Yetkin, Hürrem Bodur, Melda Sınırtaş, Halis Akalın, Fatma Aybala Altay, İrfan Şencan, Emel Azak…

The carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae threat is growing: NDM-1 epidemic at a training hospital in Turkey

Recently, new carbapenemases in Enterobacteriaceae strains and non-fermentative gram-negative bacilli have been reported. The New Delhi metallo‐β‐lactamase-1 (NDM-1) is a major problem around the world. The pu...

Authors: Oguz Karabay, Mustafa Altindis, Mehmet Koroglu, Onur Karatuna, Özlem Akkaya Aydemir and Ali Fuat Erdem

MALDI-TOF MS based carbapenemase detection from culture isolates and from positive blood culture vials

Antibiotic resistance in bacteria leads to massive health problems. Incidence of carbapenem and multidrug resistance in Gram-negative bacteria are increasing globally and turn out to be a very urgent challenge...

Authors: B. Ghebremedhin, A. Halstenbach, M. Smiljanic, M. Kaase and P. Ahmad-Nejad

The evaluation and application of multilocus variable number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) for the molecular epidemiological study of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Enteritidis infection

Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Enteritidis (S. Enteritidis) is one of the most prevalent Salmonella serotypes that cause gastroenteritis worldwide and the most prevalent s...

Authors: Yao Liu, Xiaolu Shi, Yinghui Li, Qiongcheng Chen, Min Jiang, Wanli Li, Yaqun Qiu, Yiman Lin, Yixiang Jiang, Biao Kan, Qun Sun and Qinghua Hu

Prevalence and characterization of extended-spectrum beta-lactamases producing Enterobacteriaceae in healthy children and associated risk factors

Community acquired infections due to extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (ESBL-PE) had been increased. The fecal flora of children in the community represents a huge potential reservoir ...

Authors: S. M. Hijazi, M. A. Fawzi, F. M. Ali and K. H. Abd El Galil