We investigated two consecutive Serratia marcescens (S. marcescens) outbreaks which occurred in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of a tertiary level hospital in North Italy in a period of 10 years (January 2003-December 2012). Risk factors associated with S. marcescens acquisition were evaluated by a retrospective case-control study. A total of 21,011 clinical samples was examined: S. marcescens occurred in 127 neonates: 43 developed infection and 3 died. Seven clusters were recorded due to 12 unrelated clones which persisted for years in the ward, although no environmental source was found. The main epidemic clone A sustaining the first cluster in 2003 reappeared in 2010 as an extended spectrum ?-lactamase (ESBL)-producing strain and supporting the second epidemic. Birth weight, gestational age, use of invasive devices and length of stay in the ward were significantly related to S. marcescens acquisition. The opening of a new ward for non-intensive care-requiring neonates, strict adherence to alcoholic hand disinfection, the timely identification and isolation of infected and colonized neonates assisted in containing the epidemics. Genotyping was effective in tracing the evolution and dynamics of the clones demonstrating their long-term persistence in the ward.
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BMC Pediatr
January 2025
Biomedical and Clinical Research Centre, College of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
Purpose: To elucidate the global epidemiology of Ophthalmia Neonatorum (ON), as well as its causative organisms and their antibiotic susceptibility patterns.
Methods: A systematic review of studies reporting the epidemiology of ON was performed using four electronic databases: PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Medline. Data were extracted and study-specific estimates were combined using meta-analysis to obtain pooled proportions.
J Exp Biol
January 2025
Department of Entomology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Bacterial infections can substantially impact host metabolic health as a result of the direct and indirect demands of sustaining an immune response and of nutrient piracy by the pathogen itself. Drosophila melanogaster and other insects that survive a sublethal bacterial infection often carry substantial pathogen burdens for the remainder of life. In this study, we asked whether these chronic infections exact metabolic costs for the host, and how these costs scale with the severity of chronic infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Burn Care Res
January 2025
Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
Serratia marcescens is an opportunistic nosocomial pathogen with significant implications for burn care due to its multidrug resistance, virulence, and ability to colonize hospital environments. This retrospective study, conducted at an American Burn Association Verified Burn Centre, reviewed 22 cases of S. marcescens infections from 2015 to 2020.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Hazard Mater
January 2025
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China; Key Laboratory of Agro-Forestry Environmental Processes and Ecological Regulation of Hainan Province, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China. Electronic address:
Microbe-Assisted Phytoremediation (MAP) is an eco-friendly method for remediating soil contaminated with heavy metals such as cadmium (Cd) and chromium (Cr). This study demonstrates the potential of a king grass-Serratia marcescens strain S27 (KS) co-symbiotic system to enhance heavy metal remediation. The KS symbiosis increased the biomass of king grass by 48 % and enhanced the accumulation of Cd and Cr in the whole plant by 2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNat Microbiol
January 2025
Section of General Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
Sepsis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality, but our understanding of the mechanisms underlying survival or susceptibility is limited. Here, as pathogens often subvert host defence mechanisms, we hypothesized that this might influence the outcome of sepsis. We used microbiota analysis, faecal microbiota transplantation, antibiotic treatment and caecal metabolite analysis to show that gut-microbiota-derived tryptophan metabolites including indoles increased host survival in a mouse model of Serratia marcescens sepsis.
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