Search results for "Outbreak"

Outbreak of infection with Klebsiella pneumoniae sequence type 258 producing Klebsiella pneumoniae Carbapenemase 3 in an intensive care unit in Italy

2010

Gram-negative pathogens producing carbapenemases represent an alarming clinical threat with serious effects on patient outcomes ([3][1], [7][2]). In 2001, Yigit et al. ([11][3]) reported a novel β-lactamase termed “ K lebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase” (KPC-1) in North Carolina. KPC-producing

Containment of a Large SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak Among Healthcare Workers in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

2020

Objective Healthcare workers (HCWs) are particularly exposed SARS-CoV-2 because they are critical in preventing viral transmission and treating COVID-19 patients. Within HCWs, personnel of intensive care units (ICUs) are at the forefront of treating patients with a severe course of COVID-19 infection and therefore represent an extremely vulnerable group. Thus, our objective is to contribute to establish means of infection control protecting HCWs in the frontline of the current pandemic. Design An outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 was detected and contained in a pediatric ICU (PICU). The first positive case was identified with a point-of-care diagnostic system on site. Real-time PCR-based testing syste…

Facepiece filtering respirators with exhalation valve should not be used in the community to limit SARS-CoV-2 diffusion.

2020

High incidence of outbreaks of norovirus GGII.4 in hospitals and nursing homes in Catalonia.

2009

Phylogenetic analysis of environmental Legionella pneumophila isolates from an endemic area (Alcoy, Spain).

2015

Environmental surveillance of Legionella pneumophila is a key component of the control measures established in urban settlements to ensure water safety and quality, with the aim of minimizing and limiting opportunistic infections in humans. In this work, we present results on the detection and genetic characterization of these bacteria in the outbreak-recurrent region of Alcoy (Comunidad Valenciana, Spain) using water and biofilm samples. We were particularly interested in studying the presence and distribution of L. pneumophila in the absence of outbreak or sporadic cases of legionellosis and in comparing the efficacy of culturing from water samples with a biofilm-based detection procedure…

Association between Conflict and Cholera in Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo

2022

Cholera outbreaks significantly contribute to disease mortality and morbidity in low- and middle-income countries. Cholera outbreaks have several social and environmental risk factors and extreme conditions can act as catalysts. A social extreme with known links to infectious disease outbreaks is conflict, causing disruption to services, loss of income and displacement. Here, we used the self-controlled case series method in a novel application and found that conflict increased the risk of cholera in Nigeria by 3.6 times and 19.7% of cholera outbreaks were attributable to conflict. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), conflict increased the risk of cholera by 2.6 times and 12.3% of ch…

Method for Specific Identification of the Emerging Zoonotic Pathogen Vibrio vulnificus Lineage 3 (Formerly Biotype 3).

2020

ABSTRACT Vibrio vulnificus is a zoonotic pathogen that is spreading worldwide due to global warming. Lineage 3 (L3; formerly biotype 3) includes the strains of the species with the unique ability to cause fish farm-linked outbreaks of septicemia. The L3 strains emerged recently and are particularly virulent and difficult to identify. Here, we describe a newly developed PCR method based on a comparative genomic study useful for both rapid identification and epidemiological studies of this interesting emerging group. The comparative genomic analysis also revealed the presence of a genetic duplication in the L3 strains that could be related to the unique ability of this lineage to produce sept…

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…

Molecular Epidemiology and Evolution in an Outbreak of Fulminant Hepatitis B Virus

2006

ABSTRACT In order to establish the transmission pathway for two outbreak patients affected by fulminant hepatitis B (FHB) following a shared period of hospitalization, we sequenced the complete genomes of the hepatitis B viruses (HBV) isolated from them as well as from the suspected common source and 11 additional controls. Phylogenetic and statistical analyses of these sequences revealed that the two FHB patients were indeed infected by a common source and that the fatal development of the disease did not appear to be associated with any mutation previously reported to be related to FHB. These data have also allowed us to estimate the extent and distribution of genetic variability along th…

Molecular epidemiology of a hepatitis C virus outbreak in a hemodialysis unit.

2005

ABSTRACT We analyzed a hepatitis C virus (HCV) transmission case in the hemodialysis unit of a private clinic by sequencing two genome regions of virus isolates from a number of patients attending this unit and some external controls. The analysis of 337 nucleotides (nt) in the NS5B region did not provide enough resolution to ascertain which patients were actually involved in the outbreak and the potential source. Nevertheless, this region allowed the exclusion of several patients as putative sources of the transmission case based on their genotypes and phylogenetic relationships. On the other hand, the analysis of several 472-nt-long clone sequences per sample in a more rapidly evolving re…