BACKGROUND Hepatitis C virus infection is probably the most common chronic viral infection and affects an estimated 180 million people worldwide. Extrahepatic manifestations are well recognized among patients with chronic HCV infection. CASE REPORT We report a case of melena occurring in a 69-year-old Japanese man who had been diagnosed with CHC and who was treated with antiviral therapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA bacterial insertion sequence (IS) is a mobile DNA sequence carrying only the transposase gene (tnp) that acts as a mutator to disrupt genes, alter gene expressions, and cause genomic rearrangements. "Canonical" ISs have historically been characterized by their terminal inverted repeats (IRs), which may form a stem-loop structure, and duplications of a short (non-IR) target sequence at both ends, called target site duplications (TSDs). The IS distributions and virulence potentials of Staphylococcus aureus genomes in familial infection cases are unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStreptococcus pneumoniae, a common human pathogen, colonizes the nasopharynx and causes diseases including acute otitis media (AOM). Herein, pneumococcal serotype distributions in children before and after PCV7 vaccination and in patients with pneumococcal disease in Siberian Russia (Krasnoyarsk) are reported. Analyses included antimicrobial susceptibility testing, sequence typing (ST), pulsed field gel electrophoresis, virulence-related surface protein gene (VSG) typing with novel primers and structural analysis by scanning electron microscopy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFST8/SCCmecIV community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) has been a common threat, with large USA300 epidemics in the United States. The global geographical structure of ST8/SCCmecIV has not yet been fully elucidated. We herein determined the complete circular genome sequence of ST8/SCCmecIVc strain OC8 from Siberian Russia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCommunity-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) has become a major concern worldwide. In the United States, ST8 CA-MRSA with SCCmecIVa (USA300) has been predominant, affecting the entire United States. In this study, we investigated Japanese ST8 CA-MRSA with new SCCmecIV1 (designated ST8 CA-MRSA/J), which has emerged in Japan since 2003.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMethicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a common multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogen. We herein discussed MRSA and its infections in Krasnoyarsk, Siberian Russia between 2007 and 2011. The incidence of MRSA in 3,662 subjects was 22.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStaphylococcus aureus has occupied an important position in public health as a cause of food poisoning and hospital-acquired MRSA (HA-MRSA) infections. The spread of community-acquired MRSA (CA-MRSA) infections has also recently become a concern. However, the sources of this infection remain unclear, and there are few reports of epidemiology information.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA 15-year-old boy, who had had a furuncle on his femur, developed femoral pyomyositis and osteomyelitis complicated by septic pulmonary embolism. Panton-Valentine leukocidin-positive (PVL(+)) ST59 methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) was isolated from pus and blood. Chemotherapy was started with cefazolin, followed by combination therapy with meropenem/vancomycin with surgery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe ST5 lineage of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is one of the most globally disseminated hospital-associated MRSA (HA-MRSA) lineages. We isolated a new local variant (designated ST764) over at least 5 years that causes invasive infections, including necrotizing fasciitis, and is carried by medical students, as well as household members. Analysis of the genome sequence of one isolate compared to that of the reference ST5 strain revealed that ST764 had acquired virulence traits similar to those of community-associated MRSA (CA-MRSA) through the acquisition of two new mobile genetic elements, ACMEII and SaPInn54, which carried ACME arcA and the staphylococcal enterotoxin B gene (seb), respectively, and through enhanced expression of cytolytic peptide genes, although ST764 was negative for Panton-Valentine leukocidin.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSimilarly to Helicobacter pylori but unlike Vibrio cholerae O1/O139, Campylobacter jejuni is non-motile at 20°C but highly motile at ≥37°C. The bacterium C. jejuni has one of the highest swimming speeds reported (>100 μm/s), especially at 42°C.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn 89-year-old man suffered from and died of necrotizing pneumonia with rapid progression and cavity formation due to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). He was at no risk for hospital-acquired MRSA infection. His MRSA exhibited genotype ST5/spa2(t002)/agr2/SCCmecII/coagulaseII and was negative for Panton-Valentine leukocidin, indicating the New York/Japan clone (the predominant epidemic hospital-acquired MRSA clone in Japan).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMethicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) with ST59/SCCmecV and Panton-Valentine leukocidin gene is a major community-acquired MRSA (CA-MRSA) lineage in Taiwan and has been multidrug-resistant since its initial isolation. In this study, we studied the acquisition mechanism of multidrug resistance in an ST59 CA-MRSA strain (PM1) by comparative genomics. PM1's non-β-lactam resistance was encoded by two unique genetic traits.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnterobacteriaceae, carrying the New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase-1 (NDM-1) gene (bla (NDM-1)), have emerged and posed a threat since 2006. In Japan, bla (NDM-1)-carrying Escherichia coli was first described in 2010. In this study, we characterized NDM-1-positive Klebsiella pneumoniae strain 419 in Japan, which was isolated from the urine of a 90-year-old Japanese patient who had never been to the Indian subcontinent.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMethicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) includes hospital-acquired MRSA (HAMRSA) and community-acquired MRSA (CA-MRSA). Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL)-positive multilocus sequence type 30 (ST30) MRSA is one of worldwide CA-MRSA, which has also persisted in Japan since the 1980s. However, unexpectedly, it was not the same ST30 clone throughout.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe effects of Lactobacillus johnsonii La1 (LC1) on Helicobacter pylori colonization in the stomach were investigated. H. pylori colonization and gastritis in LC1-inoculated Mongolian gerbils were significantly less intense than those in the control animals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCommunity-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) has become a major concern worldwide. In the United States, ST8 CA-MRSA with SCCmecIVa (USA300) has been predominant, affecting the entire United States. In this study, we investigated Japanese ST8 CA-MRSA with new SCCmecIVl (designated ST8 CA-MRSA/J), which has emerged in Japan since 2003.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe incidence of community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) infection has been increasing; however, the sources of infection remain unclear. Therefore, we investigated the involvement of meat as a possible mediator of CA-MRSA infection. We examined the distribution of MRSA strains in commercially distributed raw meat samples (n = 197) and diarrheal stool samples of outpatients (n = 1,287) that were collected in Oita Prefecture, Japan, between 2003 and 2009 for routine legal inspections.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTwo distinct classes of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are spreading in hospitals (as hospital-acquired MRSA, HA-MRSA) and in the community (as community-acquired MRSA, CA-MRSA). Multilocus sequence type (ST) 239 MRSA, one of the most worldwide-disseminated lineages, has been noted as a representative HA-MRSA. Here, we isolated ST239 MRSA (spa type 3 [t037] and staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec [SCCmec] type III.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHelicobacter pylori in Vladivostok, Far Eastern Russia, was investigated during 2004 to 2009. The genotype cagA(+) vacA(+) (s1/m1 or m2) accounted for 74.7%, with cagA(-) vacA(+) (s2/m2) at 11.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCommunity-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA), which often produces Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL), is an emerging threat in the community. In Japan, for example, PVL-positive ST8 CA-MRSA (USA 300), which originated from the United States, persisted in families for a year and caused severe invasive infection in a child. In this study, we describe a long-term familial infection cluster caused by novel PVL-positive CA-MRSA, which most probably originated from India.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCommunity-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA), which has staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) type IV or V, has become a major concern worldwide. However, the involvement of SCCmecIV (or V) in community spread is still not fully understood. In this study, we searched for a possible adhesin gene in SCCmecIV, which could contribute to community colonization and spread.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMethicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) not only causes disease in hospitals, but also in the community. The characteristics of MRSA transmission in the environment remain uncertain. In this study, MRSA were isolated from public transport in Tokyo and Niigata, Japan.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUSA300 methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has been attracting worldwide attention as a cause of community-associated MRSA (CA-MRSA) infections in the 21st century. Nosocomial outbreaks of CA-MRSA clones have been progressively more reported in Europe and the USA, but only one very recent report from Kyoto found in Japan. In February 2008, a severe MRSA infection occurred in one immunocompromised patient and three healthy medical staff members at the Department of Dermatology, Graduate School of Medicine, University of the Ryukyus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA total of 293 strains of Helicobacter pylori, including strains resistant to levofloxacin, clarithromycin, metronidazole, or amoxicillin, were examined for in vitro susceptibility to 10 antimicrobial agents. Among these agents, sitafloxacin (a fluoroquinolone) showed the greatest activity (MIC(90), 0.06 μg/ml), with high bactericidal activity and synergy in sitafloxacin-lansoprazole (a proton pump inhibitor) combination.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAmong bullous impetigo isolates, exfoliative toxin (ET) gene carriage was found in 61.5% of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates versus 90.6% of methicillin-susceptible S.
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