Performance and quality assurance of genotypic drug-resistance testing for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 in Japan.

Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) can suppress human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) replication and plasma HIV-1 to below detectable levels. However, HAART becomes ineffective when drug-resistant viruses emerge during HAART. Monitoring drug-resistance mutations in viruses is necessary for selecting new drugs or therapies effective at inhibiting such HIV-1 variants.

Drug-resistant HIV-1 prevalence in patients newly diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in Japan.

The increasing prevalence of drug-resistant HIV transmission has become a critical epidemic in the world today. Studies in developed countries reported 8-27% of newly diagnosed HIV/AIDS patients are infected by drug-resistant strains. To determine the prevalence of drug-resistant HIV-1 among newly diagnosed cases in Japan, eight HIV/AIDS clinical centers, three public health laboratories and the National Institute of Infectious Diseases conducted a nationwide survey.

Outbreaks of multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa in community hospitals in Japan.

We previously reported an outbreak in a neurosurgery ward of catheter-associated urinary tract infection with multidrug-resistant (MDR) Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain IMCJ2.S1, carrying the 6'-N-aminoglycoside acetyltransferase gene [aac(6')-Iae]. For further epidemiologic studies, 214 clinical isolates of MDR P.

Predominance of three NF-kappaB binding sites in the long terminal repeat region of HIV Type 1 subtype C isolates from Zambia.

Human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in the world, with almost 46 million people infected globally. HIV-1 subtype C accounts for 55% of these infections. In Zambia, the majority of HIV-1 infections are subtype C.

Multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain that caused an outbreak in a neurosurgery ward and its aac(6')-Iae gene cassette encoding a novel aminoglycoside acetyltransferase.

We characterized multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains isolated from patients involved in an outbreak of catheter-associated urinary tract infections that occurred in a neurosurgery ward of a hospital in Sendai, Japan. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis of SpeI-, XbaI-, or HpaI-digested genomic DNAs from the isolates revealed that clonal expansion of a P. aeruginosa strain designated IMCJ2.