Acute infective endocarditis caused by Delftia acidovorans, a rare pathogen complicating intravenous drug use.

Gram-negative bacilli causing infective endocarditis (IE) is rare, even in intravenous drug users. This case report underscores several clinically important aspects of Delftia acidovorans IE: the organism's ability to cause rapid destruction of normal native valves and to cause embolic occlusion of large arteries and its resistance to all aminoglycosides.

Prevalence and characteristics of herpes simplex virus type-2 coinfection in veterans with hepatitis C.

Introduction: Epidemiologic links between herpes simplex virus type-2 (HSV-2) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) exist but are poorly characterized. Seroprevalence studies of HSV-2 in veteran populations with chronic HCV infection are lacking.

Methods: The authors reviewed the medical histories and results of the HerpeSelect IgG (Focus Diagnostics, Cypress, CA) of 244 HCV-infected male veterans engaged in care.

Failure of the BD GeneOhm StaphSR assay for direct detection of methicillin-resistant and methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus isolates in positive blood cultures collected in the United States.

Fifty-nine Staphylococcus aureus isolates from one hundred blood cultures containing gram-positive cocci in clusters were identified by conventional methods and the BD GeneOhm StaphSR assay (SR). The SR misidentified three methicillin (meticillin)-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) isolates as methicillin-susceptible S.