Microbiological evaluation of the ability of the DEKO-190 Washer/Disinfector to remove Clostridium difficile spores from bedpan surfaces.

Background: Clostridium difficile is a major nosocomial pathogen causing mild diarrhoea to life-threatening pseudomembranous colitis, and its spores frequently contaminate hospital environments and equipment. Washer/Disinfectors (WDs) are commonly used to clean and decontaminate soiled equipment in health care facilities. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the DEKO-190 WD in removing C.

Comparison of ChromID C. difficile agar and cycloserine-cefoxitin-fructose agar for the recovery of Clostridium difficile.

Aim: The rapidly changing epidemiology of Clostridium difficile infection highlights the need for improved and continuing surveillance involving stool culturing to enable molecular tracking. Culture of C. difficile can be difficult and time consuming.

The effect of an acidic cleanser versus soap on the skin pH and micro-flora of adult patients: a non-randomised two group crossover study in an intensive care unit.

Objectives: To test the effects of two different cleansing regimens on skin surface pH and micro-flora, in adult patients in the intensive care unit (ICU).

Research Methodology: Forty-three patients were recruited from a 23-bed tertiary medical/surgical ICU. The nineteen patients in Group One were washed using soap for daily hygiene care over a four week period.

Isolation of Clostridium difficile from faecal specimens--a comparison of chromID C. difficile agar and cycloserine-cefoxitin-fructose agar.

The culture of toxigenic Clostridium difficile from stool specimens is still seen as the gold standard for the laboratory diagnosis of C. difficile infection (CDI). bioMérieux have released ChromID Cdiff chromogenic agar (CDIF) for the isolation and identification of C.

Candida albicans adhesion to human epithelial cells and polystyrene and formation of biofilm is reduced by sub-inhibitory Melaleuca alternifolia (tea tree) essential oil.

This study investigated the effects of the volatile terpene-rich oil from Melaleuca alternifolia (tea tree oil) on the formation of biofilms and the adhesion of C. albicans cells to both biotic and abiotic surfaces. Biofilm formation on polystyrene was significantly inhibited for 70% of the isolates at the lowest test concentration of 0.

Siderophore production by actinomycetes isolates from two soil sites in Western Australia.

The actinomycetes are metabolically flexible soil micro-organisms capable of producing a range of compounds of interest, including siderophores. Siderophore production by actinomycetes sampled from two distinct and separate geographical sites in Western Australia were investigated and found to be generally similar in the total percentage of siderophore producers found. The only notable difference was the proportion of isolates producing catechol siderophores with only 3% found in site 1 (from the north-west of Western Australia and reportedly containing 40% magnetite) and 17% in site 2 (a commercial stone fruit orchard in the hills east of Perth with a soil base ranging from sandy loam to laterite).

In Vitro susceptibility of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus to a new antimicrobial, copper silicate.

The soluble copper silicate (CS) MIC of 100 strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and 100 strains of methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) was 175 mg Cu/liter. Bactericidal and postantibiotic effects (> or =1 h) were seen at 2x MIC and 4x MIC.

The fhu genes of Rhizobium leguminosarum, specifying siderophore uptake proteins: fhuDCB are adjacent to a pseudogene version of fhuA.

A mutant of Rhizobium leguminosarum was isolated which fails to take up the siderophore vicibactin. The mutation is in a homologue of fhuB, which in Escherichia coli specifies an inner-membrane protein of the ferric hydroxamate uptake system. In Rhizobium, fhuB is in an operon fhuDCB, which specifies the cytoplasmic membrane and periplasmic proteins involved in siderophore uptake.

Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. viciae produces a novel cyclic trihydroxamate siderophore, vicibactin.

Trihydroxamate siderophores were isolated from iron-deficient cultures of three strains of biovar , two from Japan (WSM709, WSM710) and one from the Mediterranean (WU235), and from a Tn5-induced mutant of WSM710 (MNF7101). The first three all produced the same compound (vicibactin), which was uncharged and could be purified by solvent extraction into benzyl alcohol. The gallium and ferric complexes of vicibactin were extractable into benzyl alcohol at pH 5.