Expansion and countrywide dissemination of ST11, ST15 and ST147 ciprofloxacin-resistant CTX-M-15-type beta-lactamase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae epidemic clones in Hungary in 2005--the new 'MRSAs'?

Objectives: To investigate the molecular epidemiology of ciprofloxacin-resistant CTX-M-15-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae epidemic clones (ECs) isolated from six nosocomial outbreaks and sporadic cases during 2005 in Hungary.

Methods: Two hundred and eighty-one extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing K. pneumoniae clinical isolates collected from 41 centres were submitted to the National ESBL Reference Laboratory for further investigations.

Epidemiology of SHV-type beta-lactamase-producing Klebsiella spp. from outbreaks in five geographically distant Hungarian neonatal intensive care units: widespread dissemination of epidemic R-plasmids.

One hundred and twenty-six extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing clinical isolates of Klebsiella spp. were collected in 1998, 2002 and 2003 from seven outbreaks in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) of five Hungarian county and teaching hospitals. The isolates were multidrug resistant but were susceptible to ciprofloxacin.

Comparison of traditional and molecular typing methods of Escherichia coli O157.

An account is given using typing methods and detection of virulence genes of different serotypes of Escherichia coli isolated in Hungary. By hybridization using SLT-I and SLT-II probes and PCR method using stx1-2, eae and ehx primers we could differentiate O157 strains of different serotypes into eight (stx, eae, ehxA positive; stx, eae positive; stx, ehxA positive; stx positive; eae, ehxA positive; eae positive; ehxA positive; stx, eae, ehxA negative) types. The discriminatory power of phage typing proves to be much higher than that of the plasmid profile.

Wide geographic distribution of a unique methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus clone in Hungarian hospitals.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the genetic relatedness of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates recovered from six provincial hospitals in Hungary between 1993 and 1994. METHODS: Molecular fingerprinting methods were used: hybridization with a mecA-specific DNA probe after ClaI restriction; hybridization with a probe for Tn554; and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis after Smal digestion of chromosomal DNA. RESULTS: All strains were resistant to penicillin, oxacillin, erythromycin, gentamicin, tetracycline, imipenem, and cephalosporins, and variably resistant to ofloxacin, clindamycin and tobramycin; all isolates were susceptible to vancomycin.