Seasonal variations in blood culture numbers and time to positivity and potential impact of reducing incubation periods.

Patients with viral respiratory infections often present symptoms compatible with bloodstream infections. Consequently, the winter period commonly associated with epidemic respiratory illnesses shows an increase in the number of blood cultures (BC) and to occasional saturation of automated BC systems. Here, we explored the seasonal variations in BC samples and the potential impact of shortening the incubation time of BC when automated BC systems are close to saturation.

Characteristics and costs of carbapenemase-producing enterobacteria carriers (2012/2013).

Objectives: We had for aim to determine the characteristics of carbapenemase-producing enterobacteria (CPE) carriers and to assess the economic impact of isolation measures leading to loss of activity (closed beds, prolonged hospital stays) and additional personnel hours.

Patients And Methods: We conducted a retrospective study for 2years (2012/2013), in a French general hospital, focusing on CPE carriers with clinical case description. The costs were estimated by comparing the activity of concerned units (excluding the ICU) during periods with CPE carriers or contacts, during the same periods of the year (n-1), plus additional hours and rectal swabs.

Pulmonary tuberculosis due to Mycobacterium microti: a study of six recent cases in France.

Human tuberculosis caused by Mycobacterium microti is rare, but its prevalence and clinical significance may have been underestimated. To the best of our knowledge, 21 cases have been reported in the literature in the last decade. We report six recent pulmonary cases caused by M.

[Community- and non-community-acquired bacteremia: correlation between empiric antimicrobial therapy and susceptibility of micro-organisms isolated during 2007 in the Ile-de-France microbiologists network].

Aim Of The Study: To estimate the percentage of empirical treatments adapted in the bloodstream infections of community and not community origin and to determine the main circumstances in which this initial treatment is not adapted.

Patients And Methods: Surveillance of bloodstream infections from the laboratories of microbiology of the eight hospitals of the Ile-de-France network, during year 2007. The study concerned the patients hospitalised in medicine, surgery, obstetrics, intensive care, following care and rehabilitation, day hospitalisation, hospitalisation at home, who presented one or several episodes of bloodstream infections.

[Comparison of two ELISA tests to study the seroprevalence of herpes simplex 1 et 2 infection in a maternity near Paris].

Unlabelled: The diagnosis of herpes simplex virus (HSV) genital infection is primarily clinical. The primary indication for serodiagnosis is to detect seronegativity in pregnant women at risk of acquiring the HSV virus during the course of their pregnancy. In this study, two ELISA tests were compared for the detection of HSV infection among a population of 307 pregnant women followed at the maternity of a community-based hospital in France (Robert Ballanger hospital in the Seine-Saint-Denis department).