A systematic approach for developing a ventilator-associated pneumonia prevention bundle.

Background: Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is among the most common type of health care-associated infection in the intensive care unit and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Existing VAP prevention intervention bundles vary widely on the interventions included and in the approaches used to develop these bundles. The objective of this study was to develop a new VAP prevention bundle using a systematic approach that elicits clinician perceptions on which interventions are most important and feasible to implement.

Regulation of high-affinity iron acquisition homologues in the tsetse fly symbiont Sodalis glossinidius.

Sodalis glossinidius is a facultative intracellular bacterium that is a secondary symbiont of the tsetse fly (Diptera: Glossinidae). Since studies with other facultative intracellular bacteria have shown that high-affinity iron acquisition genes are upregulated in vivo, we investigated the regulation of several Sodalis genes that encode putative iron acquisition systems. These genes, SG1538 (hemT) and SG1516 (sitA), are homologous to genes encoding periplasmic heme and iron/manganese transporters, respectively.