Could Public Restrooms Be an Environment for Bacterial Resistomes?

PMCID: PMC3547874This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Comparison of methods for the detection of biofilm production in coagulase-negative staphylococci

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The ability of biofilm formation seems to play an essential role in the virulence of coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS). The most clearly characterized component of staphylococcal biofilms is the polysaccharide intercellular adhesin (PIA) encoded by the <it>icaADBC </it>operon. Biofilm production was studied in 80 coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) strains isolated from clinical specimens of newborns with infection hospitalized at the Neonatal Unit of the University Hospital, Faculty of Medicine of Botucatu, and in 20 isolates obtained from the nares of healthy individuals without signs of infection. The objective was to compare three phenotypic methods with the detection of the <it>icaA</it>, <it>icaD </it>and <it>icaC </it>genes by PCR.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>Among the 100 CNS isolates studied, 82% tested positive by PCR, 82% by the tube test, 81% by the TCP assay, and 73% by the CRA method. Using PCR as a reference, the tube test showed the best correlation with detection of the <it>ica </it>genes, presenting high sensitivity and specificity.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The tube adherence test can be indicated for the routine detection of biofilm production in CNS because of its easy application and low cost and because it guarantees reliable results with excellent sensitivity and specificity.</p

Child toy safety: An interdisciplinary approach to unravel the microbiological hazard posed by soap bubbles

In 2012 some children developed sepsis after playing together with a soap bubble toy. Microbiological testing revealed heavy contamination of the soap solution, which reasonably represented the vehicle of infection. We investigated the issue with a multidisciplinary approach: review of toy safety legislation; microbiological testing of additional samples; query of the RAPEX database for noncompliant soap bubbles; identification of major manufacturing districts. Microbiological contamination of industrial soap bubbles was widespread. Sixty-three notifications of batches contaminated by environmental microorganisms and opportunistic pathogens had been reported. The Chinese had a virtual monopoly of the soap bubble market. We identified two main manufacturing districts in Guangdong Province, both notable for degradation of their water resources. The use of untreated water for the industrial production of soap bubbles may explain the bacterial contamination. Existing legislation provides an unsatisfactory approach for managing microbiological hazards in sensitive toy categories and for identifying responsible parties in import and export of the products