Broad spectrum antibiotic use among in-patients at a hospital in Nairobi, Kenya

Background: Antimicrobial resistance is an increasingly serious threat to global public health. While the use of antibiotics is an important contributing factor, there are gaps regarding this in our region. This study aimed to describe the use of nine broad spectrum antibiotics among in-patients of The Nairobi Hospital (TNH) so as to identify opportunities for quality improvement.Methods: This was a retrospective review of the use of meropenem, ertapenem, imipenem, cefepime, piperacillin, gentamicin, amikacin, vancomycin and teicoplanin among in-patients of TNH from 1st January 2018 to 31st March 2018. Demographic and clinical data of all in-patients who were prescribed these antibiotics during the study period were retrieved from patient files.Results: There were 301 study participants with a median age (range) of 30years (1day-74years), of whom 161 (53.5%) were male. More than half of the participants were admitted for less than one week and had at least one co-morbidity. Meropenem was the most commonly prescribed study antibiotic 123 (40.9%) followed by amikacin 89 (29.6%). Respiratory tract infections 125 (41.5%) were the predominant indications. Meropenem had the longest mean duration of administration, 6.5days while the aminoglycosides were administered for a relatively shorter duration of about 4.8days. Cultures were done on 187 (62.1%) patients though it is only samples of 45 patients that grew an organism, E. coli and Klebsiella sp being the most frequently isolated organisms.Conclusions: There’s a need to strongly intensify implementation of restriction strategies for Meropenem use and introduction of education programs on antimicrobial stewardship targeting all prescribers

Characterization, Comparative Genomics and Genome Mining for Antibiotics and Secondary Metabolite of two Actinomycetales isolates

Actinomycetes are ubiquitous Gram (+) bacteria commonly found to have high G+C content and best known for their metabolic by-products and novel enzymes [1]. Isolates CCMMD2014 & MRMD2014 were co-cultured from soil impacted by a rusty fire hydrant in Woods Hole, MA. The Streptomyces sp. and Curtobacterium sp. isolates were identified by marker genes for 16S rRNA, rpoB, xylose isomerase, tryptophan synthase beta chain and Cytochrome P450 monooxygenase. Both isolates showed lactic acid fermentation and urease activity. The co-isolates were separated by selective culturing with antibiotics. In addition, whole genome sequencing revealed distinct inherent metabolic pathways in each culture that allowed for mutually exclusive selective culture conditions. Assembly was done using HGAP3 with Celera8 assembler using SMRT portal [2,3]. Annotation was done using the RAST server [4], with 7540 and 3969 CDS for Streptomyces sp. and Curtobacterium sp. respectively being revealed by AMIGene and BASys [5,6]. Subsequently, antiSMASH [7], was used to predict 52 and 26 secondary metabolite biosynthetic clusters that included genes for lantipeptides, terpenes, siderophores, polyketide synthases type I and II, bacteriocin and nonribosomal peptide synthase genes for Streptomyces sp. and Curtobacterium sp. respectively. The isolates have genes of potentially beneficial traits that could help study, among others, the role of fimbrial adhesins and iron in biofilm formation and investigation on natural products

Body-wave tomographic imaging of the Turkana Depression: Implications for rift development and plume-lithosphere interactions

The Turkana Depression, a topographically-subdued, broadly-rifted zone between the elevated East African and Ethiopian plateaus, disrupts the N–S, fault-bounded rift basin morphology that characterizes most of the East African Rift. The unusual breadth of the Turkana Depression leaves unanswered questions about the initiation and evolution of rifting between the Main Ethiopian and Eastern rifts. Hypotheses explaining the unusually broad, low-lying area include superposed Mesozoic and Cenozoic rifting and a lack of mantle lithospheric thinning and dynamic support. To address these issues, we have carried out the first body-wave tomographic study of the Depression’s upper mantle. Seismically-derived temperatures at 100 km depth exceed petrological estimates, suggesting the presence of mantle melt, although not as voluminous as the Main Ethiopian Rift, contributes to velocity anomalies. A NW–SE-trending high wavespeed band in southern Ethiopia at urn:x-wiley:15252027:media:ggge22580:ggge22580-math-0001200 km depth is interpreted as refractory Proterozoic lithosphere which has likely influenced the localization of both Mesozoic and Cenozoic rifting. At urn:x-wiley:15252027:media:ggge22580:ggge22580-math-0002100 km depth below the central Depression, a single localized low wavespeed zone is lacking. Only in the northernmost Eastern Rift and southern Lake Turkana is there evidence for focused low wavespeeds resembling the Main Ethiopian Rift, that bifurcate below the Depression and broaden approaching southern Ethiopia further north. These low wavespeeds may be attributed to melt-intruded mantle lithosphere or ponded asthenospheric material below lithospheric thin-spots induced by the region's multiple rifting phases. Low wavespeeds persist to the mantle transition zone suggesting the Depression may not lack mantle dynamic support in comparison to the two plateaus

The development of multiple phases of superposed rifting in the Turkana Depression, East Africa: evidence from receiver functions

The Turkana Depression in Eastern Africa separates the elevated plateaus of East Africa to the south and Ethiopia-Yemen to the north. It remains unclear whether the Depression lacks dynamic mantle support, or if the entire East Africa region is dynamically supported and the Depression compensated isostatically by thinned crust. Also poorly understood is how Miocene-Recent extension has developed across the Depression, connecting spatially separated magmatic rift zones in Ethiopia and Kenya. Receiver function analysis is used to constrain Moho depth and bulk-crustal V P /V S ratio below new seismograph networks in the Depression, and on the northern Tanzania craton. Crustal thickness is ∼40 km below northern Uganda and 30–35 km below southern Ethiopia, but 20–30 km below most of the Depression, where mass-balance calculations reveal low elevations can be explained adequately by crustal thinning alone. Despite the fact that magmatism has occurred for 45 Ma across the Depression, more than 15 Ma before East African Rift (EAR) extension initiated, bulk crustal V P /V S across southern Ethiopia and the Turkana Depression (∼1.74) is similar to that observed in areas unaffected by Cenozoic rifting and magmatism. Evidence for voluminous lower crustal intrusions and/or melt, widespread below the Ethiopian rift and Ethiopian plateau to the north, is therefore lacking. These observations, when reviewed in light of high stretching factors (β ≤ 2.11), suggest Cenozoic extension has been dominated until recently by faulting and plate stretching, rather than magma intrusion, which is likely an incipient process, operating directly below seismically-active Lake Turkana. Early-stage EAR basins to the west of Lake Turkana, with associated stretching factors of β ≈ 2, formed in crust only moderately thinned during earlier rifting episodes. Conversely, ∼23 km-thick crust beneath the Kino Sogo Fault Belt (KSFB) has small offset faults and thin sedimentary strata, suggesting almost all of the observed stretching occurred in Mesozoic times. Despite the KSFB marking the shortest path between focused extensional zones to the north and south, seismicity and GPS data show that modern extension is localized below Lake Turkana to the west. Failed Mesozoic rift zones, now characterized by thinned crust and relatively refractory mantle lithosphere, are being circumnavigated, not exploited by EAR rifting

Complete Genome Sequence of Curtobacterium sp. Strain MR_MD2014, Isolated from Topsoil in Woods Hole, Massachusetts

Here, we present the 3,443,800-bp complete genome sequence of Curtobacterium sp. strain MR_MD2014 (phylum Actinobacteria). This strain was isolated from soil in Woods Hole, MA, as part of the 2014 Microbial Diversity Summer Program at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA

Complete Genome Sequence of Streptomyces sp. Strain CCM_MD2014, Isolated from Topsoil in Woods Hole, Massachusetts

Here, we present the complete genome sequence of Streptomyces sp. strain CCM_MD2014 (phylum Actinobacteria), isolated from surface soil in Woods Hole, MA. Its single linear chromosome of 8,274,043 bp in length has a 72.13% G+C content and contains 6,948 coding sequences