Nationwide surveillance of bacterial respiratory pathogens conducted by the surveillance committee of Japanese Society of Chemotherapy, the Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases, and the Japanese Society for Clinical Microbiology in 2010: General view of the pathogens\u27 antibacterial susceptibility

The nationwide surveillance on antimicrobial susceptibility of bacterial respiratory pathogens from patients in Japan, was conducted by Japanese Society of Chemotherapy, Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases and Japanese Society for Clinical Microbiology in 2010.The isolates were collected from clinical specimens obtained from well-diagnosed adult patients with respiratory tract infections during the period from January and April 2010 by three societies. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was conducted at the central reference laboratory according to the method recommended by Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institutes using maximum 45 antibacterial agents.Susceptibility testing was evaluable with 954 strains (206 Staphylococcus aureus, 189 Streptococcus pneumoniae, 4 Streptococcus pyogenes, 182 Haemophilus influenzae, 74 Moraxella catarrhalis, 139 Klebsiella pneumoniae and 160 Pseudomonas aeruginosa). Ratio of methicillin-resistant S.aureus was as high as 50.5%, and those of penicillin-intermediate and -resistant S.pneumoniae were 1.1% and 0.0%, respectively. Among H.influenzae, 17.6% of them were found to be β-lactamase-non-producing ampicillin (ABPC)-intermediately resistant, 33.5% to be β-lactamase-non-producing ABPC-resistant and 11.0% to be β-lactamase-producing ABPC-resistant strains. Extended spectrum β-lactamase-producing K.pneumoniae and multi-drug resistant P.aeruginosa with metallo β-lactamase were 2.9% and 0.6%, respectively.Continuous national surveillance of antimicrobial susceptibility of respiratory pathogens is crucial in order to monitor changing patterns of susceptibility and to be able to update treatment recommendations on a regular basis

A Multicentre Randomized Controlled Trial of Recombinant Interferon-Alpha-2a in the Treatment of Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C

Sixty-one chronic hepatitis C patients were randomly assigned to receive either 6x106 or 9x106 U of recombinant interferon-alpha-2a (IFNα-2a) six days a week for the first two weeks of treatment, followed in both cases by 6x106 U three days a week for the next 22 weeks. In the low dose group, 11 patients showed a complete response maintained for at least six months, 12 responded but then relapsed and nine did not respond; the corresponding figures in the high dose group were 10, 15 and five patients, respectively. The differences between groups are not statistically significant. Thus, this study provides no evidence of therapeutic benefit from increasing the initial dose of IFNα-2a. In both treatment groups, complete responders had significantly lower pretreatment viral titres than nonresponders and were significantly more likely to be infected by type 2a versus type 1b virus

EFFICACY AND SAFETY OF TREATMENT WITH DACLATASVIR AND ASUNAPREVIR FOR HEPATITIS C VIRUS GENOTYPE 1

AIM : To assesse the efficacy and safety of therapy with daclatasvir (DCV) and asunaprevir (ASV) for HCV genotype 1.METHOD : The study population was 253 patients who were enrolled in the Akita hepatitis C study group from 2015 to 2016.　We followed them until 24 weeks after the end of treatment.RESULT : The sustained virological response (SVR) at 24 weeks after the end of treatment rates were 84.2%.　In univariate analyses, the Y93 mutation and a history of triple therapy with protease inhibitor reduced the SVR 24 rate.　In multivariate analyses, the Y93H mutation, a history of triple therapy with protease inhibitor, and LC status reduced the SVR 24 rate.　The most frequently reported adverse event was ALT elevation, noted in 25.7% of patients.　10.7% of patients had T-Bil elevation, 7.1% experienced drug rush, 11.5% experienced respiratory symptoms, 10.3% developed a fever, and 7.1% experienced digestive symptom.　Only 9 (3.6%) patients stopped taking the drugs due to drug-related severe adverse events.CONCLUSION : DCV and ASV therapy showed a high efficacy and low rate of adverse events