Evaluation of the new brilliance GBS chromogenic medium for screening of Streptococcus agalactiae vaginal colonization in pregnant women.

Three commercial chromogenic agar media were evaluated for Streptococcus agalactiae screening in 200 vaginal swabs from pregnant women. The sensitivity and specificity were 94.3% and 100% for Granada medium (bioMérieux), 100% and 90.

Evaluation of the new CE-IVD marked BD MAX Cdiff Assay for the detection of toxigenic Clostridium difficile harboring the tcdB gene from clinical stool samples.

The evaluation of the fully automated BD MAX Cdiff assay on a panel of 100 stool samples characterized by the Xpert C. difficile assay reported a high concordance between the two molecular assays (kappa coefficient of 0.96), which makes this new assay suitable for routine detection of toxigenic Clostridium difficile.

Epidemiology and antimicrobial resistance of Streptococcus pneumoniae in France in 2007: data from the pneumococcus surveillance network.

Antimicrobial resistance of Streptococcus pneumoniae in France is closely monitored by the pneumococcus surveillance network, founded in 1995, which collects data from regional observatories (Observatoire Régionaux du Pneumocoque [ORP]). In 2007, 23 ORPs analyzed the antibiotic susceptibility of 5,302 isolates of S. pneumoniae recovered in France from cerebrospinal fluid, blood, middle ear fluid, and pleural fluid, as well as from adult respiratory samples.

Bacterial contamination of nonsterile disposable gloves before use.

Background: After Bacillus cereus recovery in opened boxes of disposable gloves, the bacteriological contamination of disposable nonsterile gloves kept stored in native packages was investigated prospectively.

Methods: Thirty-six commercially available nonsterile nonpowdered disposable gloves made of latex, vinyl, or nitrile were cultured.

Results: A large variety of spore-forming and non-spore-forming bacteria was recovered, including Bacillus cereus and Clostridium perfringens.

Analysis of the genetic diversity of Legionella by sequencing the 23S-5S ribosomal intergenic spacer region: from phylogeny to direct identification of isolates at the species level from clinical specimens.

This study focuses on the interest of the hypervariable 23S-5S ribosomal intergenic spacer region (ISR) of the genus Legionella to analyze the phylogenic diversity of Legionella at the species and subspecies levels and to identify isolates directly from clinical specimens. The method, using a real-time PCR assay with a single primer pair followed by sequencing, was able to identify correctly 49 reference strains of Legionella belonging to 37 different species, including those implicated in human infections, and to clearly differentiate the three subspecies of L. pneumophila.

Reduction of Yersinia enterocolitica load in deliberately inoculated blood: the effects of blood prestorage temperature and WBC filtration.

Background: Yersinia enterocolitica is known to cause severe infections in patients who receive transfusions.

Study Design And Methods: The aim of the study was to define the best strategy for reducing the bacterial load in blood that was deliberately contaminated with Y. enterocolitica by combining prestorage temperature and WBC filtration with conditions of blood processing close to those applied in blood banks.

Nosocomial legionellosis outbreak over a three-year period: investigation and control.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the epidemiologic relatedness of nosocomial infections due to Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 diagnosed between 1992 and 1994 in six immunocompromised patients of the same hospital and to describe the measures which were developed to control the outbreak. METHODS: Legionella strains isolated from patients and from potable hot water were compared using three typing methods: monoclonal antibody analysis, arbitrarily primed PCR and ribotyping. RESULTS: Environmental investigations revealed the presence of high levels of L.