INTRODUCTION The increasing prevalence of enterococci strains in hospitals, particularly among isolates of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), poses important problems because of the limited effect of antimicrobial therapy for enterococcal infections. METHODS This work presents a retrospective investigation of quantitative in vitro susceptibility data for the range of antimicrobials again...

The goal of this study was to attempt to determine the rate of contamination of health-care workers' (HCWs) hands and environmental surfaces in intensive care units (ICU) by the main bacteria associated with hospital acquired infections (HAIs) in Tehran, Iran. A total of 605 and 762 swab samples were obtained from six ICU environments and HCWs' hands. Identification of the bacterial isolates wa...

INTRODUCTION Asymptomatic bacteriuria, the presence of bacteria in urine without symptoms of acute urinary tract infection, predisposes pregnant women to the development of urinary tract infections and pyelonephritis, with an attendant pregnancy related complications. OBJECTIVE To measure the prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria among ante-natal clients at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in ...

Results 343 patients were included, 158 (46.1%) with secondary and 185 (53.9%) with tertiary peritonitis. 64.4% were male, age was 63.7 ± 14.3 years and APACHE was 19.4 ± 7.8. In-hospital mortality was 37%. We showed a higher incidence of Candida spp. (Odds Ratio(OR):1.275;95% Confidence Interval(CI):1.096-1.789;P=0.016), Enterococcus faecium (OR:1.085;95% CI:1.018-1.400;P=0.002) and Enterococc...

A set of reference strains and a group of previously unidentified enterococci were analysed by rep-PCR with the (GTG)(5) primer to evaluate the discriminatory power and suitability of this method for typing and identification of enterococcal species. A total of 49 strains representing all validly described species were obtained from bacterial collections. For more extensive evaluation of this i...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the bacterial load and antibiotic resistance pattern of bacterial isolates obtained from (ready to cook) frozen food samples of animal origin in Dhaka, Bangladesh. METHODS A total of 20 samples of frozen ready to cook food of animal origin were purchased from different separate grocery stores in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Bacteria were isolated and identified based on the bas...

A six-step biochemical key is presented for the identification of all recognized Enterococcus spp. The key consists of 12 tests, but no more than 6 are needed for the most complicated identification. The reliability of the key has been evaluated with collection type strains and clinical and environmental isolates. This key has fewer tests than those reported in previous studies. There is no com...

The aim of this study was to investigate whether the ingestion of soy yogurt fermented with Enterococcus faecium CRL 183 would modify the intestinal count of enterococci, fecal pH and ammonia content in rats fed on a diet containing red meat. The rats were placed in 4 groups: for 60 days, group I was given a standard casein-based rodent feed and groups II-IV, the beef-based feed. From day 30, g...

The bacterial causes of diarrhea can be frustrating to identify, and it is likely that many remain undiagnosed. The pathogenic potential of certain bacteria becomes less ambiguous when they are observed to intimately associate with intestinal epithelial cells. In the present study we sought to retrospectively characterize the clinical, in situ molecular, and histopathological features of entero...