Salmonella enterica ssp. arizonae infection in a 43-year-old Italian man with hypoglobulinemia: a case report and review of the literature

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p><it>Salmonella enterica </it>ssp. <it>arizonae </it>is an uncommon human pathogen with serious infections reported in immunocompromised hosts. In Europe, only a few cases have been described. Patients with this infection usually have a history of contact with reptiles or travel abroad. We present a case report of infection in a patient with hypoglobulinemia and a literature review.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We describe the case of a 43-year-old Caucasian Italian man with hypoglobulinemia who presented to our hospital with sepsis and diarrhea. A stool culture yielded <it>S. enterica </it>ssp. <it>arizonae</it>. Our patient was treated with oral ciprofloxacin and made a full recovery. We also present a review of the cases of <it>S. enterica </it>ssp. <it>arizonae </it>infections previously reported in Europe.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The majority of infections from <it>S. enterica </it>ssp. <it>arizonae </it>occur in patients who are immunocompromised. Data from the literature suggests that it may be difficult to eradicate the bacteria and thus, prolonged antibiotic courses are often used. It would be advisable for clinicians to investigate for pre-existing immune dysfunction if <it>S. enterica </it>ssp. <it>arizonae </it>is isolated. In Italy, although there have only been a few cases, the likely route of transmission remains unclear and requires further surveillance.</p

Addressing k-5 students&apos; and pre-service elementary teachers&apos; conceptions of seasonal change

In this paper, primary school students&apos; and pre-service teachers&apos; ideas of seasonal change are investigated. The research was carried out in nine primary schools in Athens and in the Primary Education Department of the University of Athens. Written reports were used for gathering data while students also had the opportunity to support their answers with drawings. The results showed the following. (1) Pre-service teachers address notions which involve the movement of the Sun and/or the Earth, while primary school students address human centred, tautological and phenomenological notions as well. (2) Both primary school students and pre-service teachers mainly adopt two schemes of explanation: alterations in the distance between the Sun and the Earth and alterations in the Earth-Sun relative orientation/illumination. © 2014 IOP Publishing Ltd

©2010 Academic Journals Full Length Research paper Comparison of community and hospital-acquired bacteremia in a Greek university hospital: One year

blood culture results from the microbiology department of our hospital. One thousand three hundred and sixty six cases were detected in 1336 patients. The rate of true bacteremia which was 13.1 and 10.7 % of cultures were contaminated. Of the 1366 episodes of bloodstream infection, 55.3 % were community-acquired and 44.7 % were health-care associated. Gram-positive bacteria prevailed (58.5%), followed by gram negative bacilli (38.5%). Polymicrobial bacteremia was detected in 2.2 % of cases. Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) were the leading cause (550/1366 = 40.3%), whilst enterococci, Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococci represented 8, 6.4 and 3.8 % respectively. Pseudomonas aeruginosa was the commonest gram-negative isolate (155/1366 = 11.3%), followed by Escherichia coli (8.2%) and Acinetobacter sp. (7.3%). Fungi were isolated in the 3 % of the isolates and Candida albicans accounted for the 70.7 % of them. Fatal outcome due to bloodstream infections was 15.3 % and 5.7 % in hospital (HA) and community-acquired (CA) episodes, respectively (P &lt; 0.0005).The highest mortality occurred in patients with bacteremia due to Acinetobacter (41%) in HA episodes, and in patients with bacteremia due to S. aureus (34.0%) in CA incidents. Key words: Bacteraemia, pathogens, antimicrobial resistance