Pregnant women admitted to Tampa General Hospital, Tampa, Fla., were cultured for group B streptococci (GBS). Culture swabs were placed into enriched, selective Todd-Hewitt medium and were quantitated for GBS. The broth cultures were tested by slide coagglutination before incubation and after 5 and 20 h of incubation. Fifty-four (27%) of the 201 maternity patients cultured were positive for GBS...

Group B streptococci (GBS) express a beta-haemolysin/cytolysin that contributes to disease pathogenesis. We report an independent discovery and extension of a genetic locus encoding the GBS beta-haemolysin/cytolysin activity. A plasmid library of GBS chromosomal DNA was cloned into Escherichia coli, and a transformant was identified as beta-haemolytic on blood agar. The purified plasmid contain...

BACKGROUND Streptococcus agalactiae (group B Streptococcus) is a bacterial pathogen that causes severe intrauterine infections leading to fetal morbidity and mortality. The pathogenesis of GBS infection in this environment is poorly understood, in part because we lack a detailed understanding of the adaptation of this pathogen to growth in amniotic fluid. To address this knowledge deficit, we c...

Streptococcus agalactiae colonizes the genital and gastrointestinal tract. In pregnancy, vertical transmission of GBS to the new-born can cause neonatal sepsis, pneumonia and meningitis. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of GBS in pregnant women in their third trimester, frequency of neonatal colonization and Antibiotics Susceptibility of the isolates recovered at the Obafem...

STUDY/PRINCIPLES Antibiotic prophylaxis of Group B Streptococcus (GBS) positive women during labour reduces the risk of early-onset neonatal sepsis. Penicillin is the first choice, and clindamycin and erythromycin are second choices for penicillin-allergic women. Resistance to these antibiotics is rising. The aims of this study were to evaluate the rates of clindamycin and erythromycin resistan...

Optimization of methods for ruling out Bacillus anthracis leads to increased yields, faster turnaround times, and a lighter workload. We used 72 environmental non-B. anthracis bacilli to validate methods for ruling out B. anthracis. Most effective were the use of horse blood agar, motility testing after isolates had a 2-h incubation in trypticase soy broth, and screening isolates with a B. anth...

Bacteroides fragilis strains formed much smaller colonies on most types of blood agar plates than they did on the same media without blood. Blood inhibited strains of B. fragilis subsp. distasonis the most and B. fragilis subsp. fragilis the least. The inhibition could be eliminated by adding hemin to the blood agar. The inhibitory component of the blood was inside the erythrocytes and appeared...

One thousand and three diarrhoeal stool samples were processed in our laboratory during the period 1996/1997 for the presence of enteric pathogens especially Aeromonas spp., which has emerged as a new agent causing diarrhoea. Ampicillin sheep blood agar was found to be the best medium for the isolation of Aeromonas spp. from stool specimens. Enteric pathogens were found in 200 (20%) stools, of ...