Eleonóra Fodor

Prevalence of the carbapenemase gene (cfiA) among clinical and normal flora isolates of Bacteroides species in Hungary.

The carbapenemase gene (cfiA) was detected in 4 (5.7%) of 70 clinical isolates of Bacteroides fragilis from different parts of Hungary. Among 24 other Bacteroides species isolated from infectious processes or from normal faecal flora, none was cfiA-positive. The MIC of imipenem and meropenem for all cfiA-positive B. fragilis isolates was < or =0.25 mg/L, but 17% of the B. fragilis and 46% of the non-fragilis Bacteroides isolates exhibited reduced susceptibility to imipenem (MICs 0.5-2 mg/L). Only one of these isolates produced increased levels of beta-lactamase. No difference was observed in the outer-membrane proteins of B. fragilis isolates that harboured the cfiA gene and those with reduced susceptibility to imipenem.

Successful application of the DiversiLab repetitive-sequence-based PCR typing system for confirmation of the circulation of a multiresistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa clone in different hospital wards

The applicability of the repetitive-sequence-based PCR (rep-PCR)-based DiversiLab system was tested compared with the pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) to type a phenotypically similar subset of a large collection of multiresistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains isolated during a 17-month period from patients treated in different wards including 4 intensive care units (ICUs). Five environmental P. aeruginosa isolates obtained from one of the ICUs were also included. The DiversiLab system and the PFGE demonstrated the genetic relationship among the isolates with the same efficacy. One of the environmental isolates had the same rep-PCR type as the circulating clone. Multilocus sequence typing of one of the clinical isolates of the circulating clone proved that it is a member of a clonal complex of P. aeruginosa that has not been previously described in clinical samples.

Silver and phosphate functionalized reactive TiO 2/polymer composite films for destructions of resistent bacteria using visible light

Abstract Phosphate and silver co-functionalized TiO2 catalysts were prepared by varying amount of silver (0-1 wt.%) with constant phosphate content (0.25 wt.%). Two methods, the well-know photodeposition and a new simple method, i.e. heterocoagulation, are presented for preparing Ag-TiO2 and the optical, photochemical and photobiological properties of the different samples have been compared. Due to the silver modification, the photocatalysts showed a new Plasmon resonance peak at λmax= 455 nm. The photocatalytic efficiencies of the new photo catalysts were studied under UV-A/visible (λ > 360 nm) irradiation. Mechanically stable hydrophilic poly(EA-co-MMA) and hydrophobic poly(Bi.A-co-Ech.) based composite films were prepared by spray coating technique. The photocatalytic efficiencies decreased only by ~ 15% on the hydrophilic and ~ 63% on the hydrophobic polymer compared to the reference pure photocatalyst films. The antibacterial activity of the films was also studied under visible light (λ > 400 nm) irradiation. Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) was used as test bacterium. The best antibacterial activity (90% of bacteria destruction in 15 minutes) could be observed on the Ag- TiO2/p(EA-co-MMA) film.

Incidence, antibiotic resistance and clonal relations of MRSA strains isolated from a Romanian university hospital

Our aim was to estimate the frequency and characteristics ofmethicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains occurring in a Romanian teaching hospital. We retrospectively studied isolates from infected or colonized patients treated at the intensive care and surgical units during January 2004-December 2005. The antibiotic susceptibility of MRSA strains and the presence of mecA gene were determined. Consecutively occurring strains isolated through a three-month period were typed using pulsed field gel electrophoresis. A total of 423 S. aureus strains were identified, methicillin-resistance was detected in 211 (49.9%) strains. Most of them were multiresistant. One of the MRSA genotypes identified by PFGE was commonly recovered from patients treated in the intensive care unit. According to our results, MRSA strains were frequently isolated pathogens in our hospital and there is an urgent need to enhance infection control efforts.