Surface decontamination effectiveness at the "Université des Montagnes" Teaching Hospital: Monitoring in the biomedical analysis laboratory.

Background: Many infections in healthcare facilities are associated with the microbiological quality of the work environment, generally due to poor sanitation.

Aim: In order to evaluate the effectiveness of a decontamination protocol (cleaning + disinfection) applied at the "Université des Montagnes" Teaching Hospital, the present study assessed the variation of bacterial loads on surfaces subsequent to decontamination. Susceptibility of bacteria to disinfectants was also evaluated in the same frame.

An automatic multipoint inoculator for the determination of minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of antibiotics in low-income countries: a technical note.

Multipoint inoculator is a laboratory equipment that is used to inoculate with a very high precision a certain number of microorganisms in culture media, in order to determine the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of antibiotics that would inhibit microbial growth. MICs values are crucial in the control of microbial drug-susceptibility profile for effective infectious disease control and microbial resistance stewardship. The complexity of multipoint inoculator makes it very rare or almost non-existent in developing countries laboratories.

An acute foodborne outbreak due to Plesiomonas shigelloides in Yaounde, Cameroon.

We investigated an acute foodborne outbreak in Yaounde, Cameroon, following a private party. Plesiomonas shigelloides, which has rarely been reported as the causative agent of foodborne outbreaks, was strongly suspected. The unusual short incubation period suggested the presence of a preformed toxin within the incriminated food.