Susceptibility patterns and cross resistances of antibiotics against Pseudomonas aeruginosa in a teaching hospital of Turkey

BACKGROUND: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the third most common pathogen responsible for nosocomial infections and the prevalence of multiple resistant isolates has been increasing. Ninety-nine clinical isolates were studied in order to assess the current levels of susceptibility and cross-resistances of widely used antipseudomonal antibiotics against P. aeruginosa and to determine some resistance mechanisms by phenotypic methods. METHODS: MICs of isolates for nine antipseudomonal antibiotics were determined by the E test method. RESULTS: Thirty-six percent of isolates were resistant to more than one group of antibiotics. The rates of susceptible isolates were ciprofloxacin 75%, amikacin 73%, ceftazidime 65%, meropenem 63%, imipenem 63%, piperacillin/tazobactam 60%, cefoperazone/sulbactam 59%, cefepime 54% and tobramycin 44%. The majority of carbapenem resistant isolates were susceptible to ciprofloxacin and amikacin. CONCLUSION: Ciprofloxacin seems to be the most active agent against P. aeruginosa followed by amikacin in our unit. The usefulness of combinations of these antibiotics and β-lactams should be tested in treating multi-drug resistant P. aeruginosa

Science without meritocracy. Discrimination among European specialists in infectious diseases and clinical microbiology: a questionnaire survey

OBJECTIVE: In 2009, in a European survey, around a quarter of Europeans reported witnessing discrimination or harassment at their workplace. The parity committee from the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) designed a questionnaire survey to investigate forms of discrimination with respect to country, gender and ethnicity among medical professionals in hospitals and universities carrying out activities in the clinical microbiology (CM) and infectious diseases (ID) fields. DESIGN: The survey consisted of 61 questions divided into five areas (sociodemographic, professional census and environment, leadership and generic) and ran anonymously for nearly 3 months on the ESCMID website. SUBJECTS: European specialists in CM/ID. RESULTS: Overall, we included 1274 professionals. The majority of respondents (68%) stated that discrimination is present in medical science. A quarter of them reported personal experience with discrimination, mainly associated with gender and geographic region. Specialists from South-Western Europe experienced events at a much higher rate (37%) than other European regions. The proportion of women among full professor was on average 46% in CM and 26% in ID. Participation in high-level decision-making committees was significantly (>10 percentage points) different by gender and geographic origin. Yearly gross salary among CM/ID professionals was significantly different among European countries and by gender, within the same country. More than one-third of respondents (38%) stated that international societies in CM/ID have an imbalance as for committee member distribution and speakers at international conferences. CONCLUSIONS: A quarter of CM/ID specialists experienced career and research discrimination in European hospitals and universities, mainly related to gender and geographic origin. Implementing proactive policies to tackle discrimination and improve representativeness and balance in career among CM/ID professionals in Europe is urgently needed

Influenza B-associated encephalopathy in two adults.

Influenza virus is associated with a variety of neurological complications, of which the most commonly encountered are seizures and encephalopathy. Acute encephalitis and postinfectious encephalopathy have been reported infrequently in association with influenza A and B virus infections. We describe two previously healthy adults who presented with encephalopathy with a virologically documented influenza B infection