Search results for " EPIDEMIOLOGY"
showing 10 items of 704 documents
Phylogenetic Analysis of isolates from new cases of HBV infection in Southern Italy.
2012
The level of endemicity of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections in Italy is low and genotype D infections predominant. New HBV strains may however be introduced as a result of movements of people from regions of high endemicity. The aim of the present study was to determine whether strains from new cases of acute hepatitis B detected in southern Italy were due to endemic or new HBV strains. We studied 34 isolates from patients with acute hepatitis B infection, and 35 from chronic hepatitis B patients. A phylogenetic analysis of preS/S region was done by comparing the sequences from the acute and chronic cases with references sequences. The study showed that 44% of strain from acute hepatitis …
Potential association of specific Candida parapsilosis genotypes, bloodstream infections and colonization of health workers' hands.
2014
AbstractFungal nosocomial infections continue to be a serious problem among hospitalized patients, decreasing quality of life and adding millions of euros to healthcare costs. The aim of this study was to describe the pattern of fungi associated with the hands of healthcare workers and to genotype Candida parapsilosis isolates in order to understand whether their high clinical prevalence stems from endemic nosocomial genotypes or from the real emergence of epidemiologically-unrelated strains. Approximately 39% (50/129) of healthcare workers were positive for yeasts and among 77 different fungal isolates recovered, C. parapsilosis was the most frequent (44/77; 57%). Twenty-seven diverse geno…
Is the monoclonal spread of the ST258, KPC-3-producing clone being replaced in southern Italy by the dissemination of multiple clones of carbapenem-n…
2015
D. M. Geraci, C. Bonura, M. Giuffre, L. Saporito, G. Graziano, A. Aleo, T. Fasciana, F. Di Bernardo, T. Stampone, D. M. Palma and C. Mammina 1) Department of Sciences for Health Promotion and Mother-Child Care ‘G. D’Alessandro’, University of Palermo, 2) Postgraduate Specialty School in Hygiene and Preventive Medicine, University of Palermo, 3) Laboratory of Microbiology, General Hospital ARNAS ‘Civico, Di Cristina & Benfratelli’, 4) Laboratory of Microbiology, General Hospital Azienda Ospedaliera ‘Villa Sofia-V, Cervello’ and 5) II Intensive Care Unit, General Hospital ARNAS ‘Civico, Di Cristina & Benfratelli’, Palermo, Italy
Direct sequencing of Legionella pneumophila from respiratory samples for sequence-based typing analysis.
2009
ABSTRACT We have developed a procedure to test the efficiency and reliability of sequencing of Legionella pneumophila genes directly from respiratory samples and have compared the results with those derived from cultured isolates. We tried to obtain the nucleotide sequences of six protein-coding loci included in the sequence-based typing scheme for Legionella pneumophila and three intergenic regions from 132 samples corresponding to 106 patients positive for urine antigen. A seminested PCR approach was used to amplify and sequence these nine loci directly from respiratory samples. Nucleotide sequences were directly obtained for 23 Legionella isolates and also for 66 respiratory secretions f…
A multilocus sequence analysis scheme for characterization of Flavobacterium columnare isolates
2015
Background Columnaris disease caused by Flavobacterium columnare is a serious problem in aquaculture, annually causing large economic losses around the world. Despite considerable research, the molecular epidemiology of F. columnare remains poorly understood. Methods We investigated the population structure and spatiotemporal changes in the genetic diversity of F. columnare population in Finland by using a multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and analysis (MLSA) based on DNA sequence variation within six housekeeping genes. A total of 83 strains of F. columnare were collected from eight different areas located across the country between 2003 and 2012. Results Partial sequencing of six housekee…
Distribution of emm types among group A streptococcal isolates from Serbia.
2010
AbstractThis is the first study concerning the molecular epidemiology of group A streptococcus in Serbia and includes 145 isolates from patients with various infections during the period 2001–2007. The emm types, superantigen profile and susceptibility pattern were determined. Among 31 emm types identified, the most prevalent were emm6, emm12, emm1, and emm58. All isolates showed uniform antimicrobial susceptibility to all tested antibiotics, with the exception of tetracycline and erythromycin (41% and 0.7% resistant strains, respectively). Significant heterogeneity of emm types was found, with a high frequency of emm6 and emm58, as well as a considerable prevalence of tetracycline resistan…
Snapshot of Moving and Expanding Clones of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Their Global Distribution Assessed by Spoligotyping in an International Stu…
2003
ABSTRACT The present update on the global distribution of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex spoligotypes provides both the octal and binary descriptions of the spoligotypes for M. tuberculosis complex, including Mycobacterium bovis , from >90 countries (13,008 patterns grouped into 813 shared types containing 11,708 isolates and 1,300 orphan patterns). A number of potential indices were developed to summarize the information on the biogeographical specificity of a given shared type, as well as its geographical spreading (matching code and spreading index, respectively). To facilitate the analysis of hundreds of spoligotypes each made up of a binary succession of 43 bits of information, …
Epidemiological investigations and molecular characterization of ‘candidatus phytoplasma solani’ in grapevines, weeds, vectors and putative vectors i…
2020
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Global Distribution of Shigella sonnei Clones
2011
To investigate global epidemiology of Shigella sonnei, we performed multilocus variable number tandem repeat analysis of 1,672 isolates obtained since 1943 from 50 countries on 5 continents and the Pacific region. Three major clonal groups were identified; 2 were globally spread. Type 18 and its derivatives have circulated worldwide in recent decades.
Comparative evaluation of three different genotyping methods for investigation of nosocomial outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease in hospitals.
2000
ABSTRACT The increased incidence of nosocomial Legionnaires' disease in two hospitals prompted investigation of possible environmental sources. In the search for an effective DNA-typing technique for use in hospital epidemiology, the performance and convenience of three methods— Sfi I macrorestriction analysis (MRA), amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP), and arbitrarily primed PCR (AP-PCR)—were compared. Twenty-nine outbreak-associated and eight nonassociated strains of Legionella pneumophila with 13 MRA types and subtypes were investigated. These strains comprised isolates from bronchoalveolar lavages, from environmental, patient-related sources, and type strains. All three typing…