[Childhood memories…].

Leprosy is still a largely worldwide spread disease but rarely encountered in metropolitan France. Its identification implies a multidisciplinary clinical, pathological and bacteriological diagnosis which is necessary to an efficient antibiotic treatment against a crippling disease which remains curable. Here we report the case of a 24-year-old man who was showing an original both cutaneous and pulmonary presence of acido-alcooloresistant bacillus which have been identified as Mycobacterium leprae by polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Non-O1, non-O139 Vibrio cholerae bacteraemia in a cirrhotic patient.

Vibrio cholerae serogroups O1 or O139 are the aetiological agents of cholera. The pathogenicity of non-O1, non-O139 V. cholerae is less well known.

Fatal congenital tuberculosis due to a Beijing strain in a premature neonate.

Congenital tuberculosis (TB) remains a rare disease but is fatal if untreated. Early detection is difficult because of the non-specific nature of the symptoms in TB during pregnancy and infancy. This report summarizes a case of congenital TB in a very premature infant, born at 25 weeks gestation.

Respiratory infections associated with nontuberculous mycobacteria in non-HIV patients.

The incidence of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) pulmonary diseases in HIV-negative patients was studied prospectively from January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2003 by 32 sentinel sites distributed throughout France. In total, 262 patients who yielded NTM isolates from respiratory clinical specimens, met the bacteriological, radiological and clinical criteria established by the American Thoracic Society for NTM respiratory disease. Among the 262 NTM isolates, 234 were slow-growing mycobacteria (125 Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare complex (MAC), 66 M.

[Evolution of antibiotic resistance and serogroups of Streptococcus pneumoniae over the 1997-2003 period in Brittany].

At this time, many antibiotics have decreased activity against Streptococcus pneumoniae, a major agent of infectious disease. In this study, we evaluated antibiotic susceptibility and serogroups of strains isolated from bacteraemia, meningitis and acute otitis media in adults and children over the 1997-2003 period in Brittany, France. In 2003, 62% of the isolates were not susceptible to penicillin and 11% were fully resistant.