Antimicrobial susceptibility of clinical isolates of non-jejuni/coli campylobacters and arcobacters from Belgium.

Objectives: To determine the susceptibility of non-jejuni/coli campylobacters and arcobacters isolated from diarrhoeal stool specimens in Belgium.

Methods: The MICs were determined using Etest for six antimicrobial agents including ampicillin, erythromycin, nalidixic acid, ciprofloxacin, gentamicin and tetracycline for the most frequently isolated non-jejuni/coli campylobacter and arcobacter strains in two University Hospital laboratories between 1995 and 2005.

Results: In total, 85 Campylobacter upsaliensis, 20 Campylobacter concisus, 11 Campylobacter fetus, 61 Arcobacter butzleri and 10 Arcobacter cryaerophilus isolates were tested.

Antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of Arcobacter butzleri and Arcobacter cryaerophilus strains isolated from humans and broilers.

The MICs of five antimicrobial agents were determined by the agar dilution method for 98 Arcobacter butzleri and 28 Arcobacter cryaerophilus strains from humans, and poultry. With gentamicin, a MIC of 16 microg/ml was recorded for one A. butzleri strain isolated from poultry, whereas for the other strains MICs ranged from 0.

Improvements in nutritional management as a determinant of reduced mortality from community-acquired lower respiratory tract infection in hospitalized children from rural central Africa.

Background: In-hospital mortality from lower respiratory tract infections (LTRI) is unacceptably high in developing countries where LTRI are still a leading cause of death.

Objective: To identify new approaches to reduce in-hospital mortality of LRTI through the improvement of its management.

Methods: The prospectively collected database of children admitted during an 11-year period with LRTI in a pediatric rural hospital in Central Africa was reviewed to determine the predictors of death and to evaluate the impact on mortality of 4 different protocols for the management of malnutrition.

Isolation and characterization of enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAggEC) by genotypic and phenotypic markers, isolated from diarrheal children in Congo.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAggEC) in African diarrheal children in Lwiro, Congo, to characterize EAggEC isolates by possible genotypic and phenotypic markers, and to evaluate the EAggEC probe pCVD432 in identifying EAggEC. METHODS: The Hep-2 cell adhesion assay and colony-blot hybridization assays were carried out for the identification of EAggEC. O:H serotyping, biotyping, antibiogram and plasmid-profile analysis were done.