Rapid Spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron Subvariant BA.2 in a Single-Source Community Outbreak.

Background: The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron variant BA.2 sublineage has increased rapidly in Europe and Asia since January 2022. Here, we report the epidemiological and genomic analysis of a large single-source BA.

Probable Animal-to-Human Transmission of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Delta Variant AY.127 Causing a Pet Shop-Related Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Outbreak in Hong Kong.

Background: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can infect human and other mammals, including hamsters. Syrian (Mesocricetus auratus) and dwarf (Phodopus sp.) hamsters are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection in the laboratory setting.

Effectiveness of antimicrobial hospital curtains on reducing bacterial contamination-A multicenter study.

Objective: To determine the efficacy of 2 types of antimicrobial privacy curtains in clinical settings and the costs involved in replacing standard curtains with antimicrobial curtains.

Design: A prospective, open-labeled, multicenter study with a follow-up duration of 6 months.

Setting: This study included 12 rooms of patients with multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) (668 patient bed days) and 10 cubicles (8,839 patient bed days) in the medical, surgical, neurosurgical, orthopedics, and rehabilitation units of 10 hospitals.

High Prevalence and Frequent Acquisition of Clostridium difficile Ribotype 002 Among Nursing Home Residents in Hong Kong.

OBJECTIVETo determine the incidence and risk factors associated with Clostridium difficile colonization among residents of nursing homes and to identify the ribotypes of circulating C. difficile strains.DESIGNA prospective cohort study with a follow-up duration of 22 months.

Comprehensive Evaluation of the MBT STAR-BL Module for Simultaneous Bacterial Identification and β-Lactamase-Mediated Resistance Detection in Gram-Negative Rods from Cultured Isolates and Positive Blood Cultures.

This study evaluated the capability of a MALDI Biotyper system equipped with the newly introduced MBT STAR-BL module to simultaneously perform species identification and β-lactamase-mediated resistance detection in bacteremia -causing bacteria isolated from cultured isolates and patient-derived blood cultures (BCs). Two hundred retrospective cultured isolates and 153 prospective BCs containing Gram-negative rods (GNR) were collected and subjected to direct bacterial identification, followed by the measurement of β-lactamase activities against ampicillin, piperacillin, cefotaxime, ceftazidime, and meropenem using the MBT STAR-BL module. The results and turnaround times were compared with those of routine microbiological processing.

A cost-effective approach for detection of toxigenic Clostridium difficile: toxigenic culture using ChromID Clostridium difficile agar.

We evaluated the performance and the cost of toxigenic culture using a commercial chromogenic medium (CDIF) for 538 stool specimens. Compared with real-time PCR, this method was found to detect an additional 9% of positive specimens and result in 61% reduction in material costs, with a trade-off increase in turnaround time of 1 day.

Quality assurance of nuchal translucency for prenatal fetal Down syndrome screening.

Objective: To assess the quality of nuchal translucency, (NT) measurements were performed at four public institutions performing routine first trimester combined prenatal screening for Down syndrome.

Methods: The median of the NT-MoM distribution and standard deviation (SD) of the log(10) NT-MoM were determined. Sonographers and screening centres distributions were assessed for measures of central tendency (median) and dispersion (log(10) SD).

Prevalence of subclinical infection by the SARS coronavirus among general practitioners in Hong Kong.

Eight general practitioners had severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (SARS) in Hong Kong during the epidemic, and others may have been infected by the SARS coronavirus without developing the full syndrome. We conducted a serological and questionnaire survey to determine the prevalence of subclinical infection by SARS coronavirus among general practitioners in Hong Kong. Participants had to be doctors actively practising in family medicine and who did not have SARS.