Salmonella, as indicators of faecal pollution, were monitored for four years in the water of Bruges' channels. Sanitary engineering works resulted in the cleansing of most of the channels which were open sewers; these works successfully transformed the heart of the city.
The survey of simian malaria in Japan which had been conducted since 1965 showed that no Japanese monkeys (Macaca fuscata fuscata and Macaca fuscata yakui) were infected with malaria parasites. Most interestingly, however, Babesia sp. was found in 4 (4.3%) of 93 Macaca fuscata yakui which had been reared in a monkey park. As for the monkeys imported from abroad, Plasmodium was only found in Macaca irus from Southeast Asia, namely, P. inui (14.1-25.0%), P. cynomologi (0.6, 3.2%) and P. coatneyi (4.3%) from various countries. On the other hand, Hepatocystis kochi was found in high proportion in Cercopithecus aethiops from Uganda. Two other blood sporozoa identified as H. semnopitheci and Entopolypoides macai were also seen in Macaca irus imported from Southeast Asia.
Crude juices of garlic (Allium sativum), onion (Allium cepa) and shallots (Allium ascalonicum) were tested in an agar diffusion test for their growth inhibitory effect on five gram negative and three gram positive bacterial species and two yeast species. All test organisms were inhibited by garlic juice, whilst onion and shallot juice showed no effect upon gram negative bacteria. Garlic juice was investigated in more detail. Addition of complex-forming agents and organic matter to the crude juice reduced its activity on all test organisms. Volatile substances showed a strong inhibitory activity after exposure for 8 hours or longer at 23 degrees C or 37 degrees C. Minimal inhibition concentrations determined in a dilution test were found to be high for gram negative bacteria and low for both yeast species. The D-values of the different test organisms in undiluted garlic juice were calculated. P. aeruginosa had a very low D-value, whilst the bacteriostatic concentration was high. This indicates a large concentration exponent of crude garlic juice for this organism. The opposite was found for S. aureus. In view of the strong antibiotic properties and the complete absence of development of resistance further investigation upon the principles of the antimicrobial activity of juices from Allium species merits consideration.
The development of acute bacillary dysentery was followed in 23 patients involved in two outbreaks and in three sporadic, mutually unrelated cases. Repeated cultivations performed at 2-day intervals for 10 days yielded 386 identifiable strains of "opportune intestinal flora". Escherichia coli colicinogenic activity is one of the significant factors of gastrointestinal tract protection. The period of shigella excretion is significantly reduced (p less than 0.02) if an appropriate colicinogenic E. coli strain is present. Analysis of the results suggested a working hypothesis of differentiated approach to bacillary dysentery treatment in outbreaks. In the absence of a suitable colicinogenic flora neomycin therapy should be administered since it does not damage the natural colonizing flora (bacteroids, bifidobacters, aerobic lactobacilli); in the presence of a suitable colicinogenic flora, no antibiotic should be used as this would abolish the coli-flora.
During the first three months of 1976 and 1978 the sensitivity patterns of bacteria and the antibiotic usage at the National Hospital of Norway was recorded. The computerized results showed that bacteria isolated at the department of pediatrics was more resistant to penicillins. Isolates from two other departments did not differ very much in their sensitivity patterns. Comparing the sensitivity patterns, a tendency of increased sensitivity to antibiotics from 1976 to 1978 was seen. Exception was the increasing resistance to gentamicin. Furthermore, tobramycin was found less effective than gentamicin on our isolates. The antibiotics most widely used at the hospital are the penicillins which account for more than 50 per cent of the usage. From 1976 to 1978 the usage of antibiotics increased about 30 per cent. A more extensive use of penicillin V and G, and sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim was responsible for most of the increase. No clear cut relationship between the antibiotic usage and the changes in sensitivity patterns of the bacteria from 1976 to 1978 was seen. Our work confirms, the usefulness of using "daily defined doses", as recommended by WHO, for estimating the antibiotic usage in a hospital.
Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia has been markedly increasing recently in Japan. Most cases are seen after receiving anti-cancer and immunosuppressive therapy against their underlying diseases. No cases have been found in undernourished or premature infants. The authors proposed a new method which can concentrate the cysts efficiently from the human and animal lungs, and express the density of infection quantitatively at the same time. This method will especially be valuable to demonstrate the organism in light infection such as latent infection, after treatment, and so on.
The antibody response to the O antigens of the patients' own gram-negative bacteria causing bloodstream infection in patients with malignancies was investigated using the hemagglutination test. Of the 87 patients, 42 (48%) produced specific antibodies in significant titers. Differences were noted between the various microorganisms. Of 44 patients with E. coli bacteremia 26 (59%) had an antibody response, whereas only 5 (33%) out of 15 subjects with Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection did. The antibody response of patients with solid tumors (61%) was significantly better than that of subjects with RES malignancies (30%). Documentation of the humoral immune response of patients to isolates from blood cultures excludes laboratory contamination and supports the relevance of the isolated microorganisms. Thus, for diagnostic purposes documentation of the immunoglobulin response supplements bacteriologic findings.
A case of Listeria infection is reported of a 10 year old girl with symptoms of the first menstruation but without the discharge of blood because of the absence of the vaginal duct. The blood retained in the uterus obtained by puncture through the rectum contained Listeria monocytogenes 4b. The infection was possibly acquired from a household pet.
Two groups of the intestinal microflora, the lactobacilli and the coliforms, were examined in thymus-deficient (nude) mice during the development of an experimental infection with the intestinal flagellate Spironucleus (Hexamita) muris and during the treatment with dimetridazole. The observed significant decrease in the number of lactobacilli under infection was probably due to the fact that the protozoan parasite fed on the microbes. Dimetridazole (0.3% in drinking water) did not influence the quantity of the lactobacilli but, owing to its selective killing of anaerobes and the lack of their antagonistic activity, a 100- to 1000-fold rise in the number of coliform microbes was observed. No of the drugs tested (dimetridazole, ornidazole, metronidazole, tinidazole, carbimazole BP and chlormethoxy-acridilamino-diethylamino-propanol-dihydrochliorde) was fully successful in the treatment of experimental spironucleosis in mice (Kunstýr, 1978) and it is suggested that recent reports on the therapeutic success of tinidazole in human giardiasis be treated with caution.
The serological reactions of klebsiella strains repeatedly isolated from four patients were examined. Variations in capsular antigens of strains from the same patient were mainly restricted to slight changes in the titre of quellung reactions and occasionally differences in cross-reactions were noted. In one case a strain reacted more strongly with a heterologous antiserum than with homologous antiserum after it had been resident in the bowel of a patient for five weeks. No significant antigenic variation was observed when multiple colonies from the same klebsiella culture were tested.
A short review has been given about recent studies on Babesia microti in natural animal host's near Munich (Southern Germany). An infected area has been studied in order to elucidate the outdoor relationship between the local strains and their preferred hosts, the European field vole Microtus agrestis. The seasonal variation of the parasites prevalence in voles shows a rise in the early summertime (71% of the catches infected). Roundish forms predominate in the erythrocytes. Multiplication never takes place by binary fission, but in "Maltese cross" form or budding-like. Normally the parasite is enveloped with a simple elementary membrane only, as shown by electron microscopy. The arthropod host is still not identified, infections of human beings not observed. This is the first finding and full description of B. microti in Germany.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the methods of biological characterization of Escherichia coli strains, in order to use them as screening tests in clinical microbiological laboratories. In two thirds of the 45 E. coli, isolated from acute intestinal infection of infants, different factors of virulence were found. The strains showed prevalently an enterotoxigenic character (66,6%), which was in correlation with the increased permeability (62,2%). Adhesive properties were present in 20% of E. coli independent of their enterotoxigenicity; only 11,1% of the strains had penetrating abilities. The rabbit skin model seems to be accurate and quick for ETEC screening purposes, as is the guinea-pig eye for the EIEC. The mouse intestinal loop has been found sensitive but time-consuming. The infant mouse model is simple and quick, but in this study it has not given optimal results. The Vero cell culture system is simple and easy to perform, but at least for some strains the preparations should be concentrated. The investigation of adhesiveness by haemagglutination is possible to conduct in every small clinical laboratory. Our opinion is, however, that after the isolation of E. coli from different pathological materials, the determination of the antigenic structure of the strains is necessary and later on the additional biological characterization should be performed.
A simplified tube O-agglutination test was developed and evaluated for the determination of somatic serogroup (O) antigens of Serratia marcescens. Use was made of Tryptic Soy broth (TSB)-grown O-cells that had been boiled for 1 hour; 0.145 M NaCl proved a satisfactory diluent. Various technical parameters of this test were examined as well. Rabbit anti-O immune sera, that had been elicited with 5 x concentrated, TSB-grown, 1 hour-boiled O-cells of all 15 currently employed O-antigen reference strains of S. marcescens yielded satisfactory O-agglutinin titers. The tube O-agglutination test compared favorably with the indirect hemagglutination technic, although the latter technic yielded significantly higher O-agglutinin titers with merely 7 of the 15 O-antigens of S. marcescens. The tube O-agglutination test permitted detection of higher O-agglutinin titers than a microtiter O-agglutination test utilizing O-cells that had been stained with safranin O. Conversely, titers obtained with TTC-stained O-cells in a microtiter agglutination procedure approximated those yielded by the tube O-agglutination test, but O-cells of the various S. marcescens strains were stained nonuniformly by triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC). As before, there existed marked serologic cross-reactivity between O-antigens O6 and O14. A new O6 candidate strain, S. marcescens isolate S 1i, serotype O6:H20, was proposed. Contrary to O-agglutinins of human control serum, the O-agglutinins of rabbit anti-O immune sera proved refractory to treatment with 0.1 M of 2-mercaptoethanol (2-ME) and 0.01 M dithiothreitol (DTT) respectively. Dual absorptions of rabbit anti-O immune sera with killed cells of Staphylococcus aureus Cowan I (protein A), failed to significantly reduce O-agglutinin titers, although human IgG and IgM was bound by protein A. It was tentatively concluded that the 2-ME- and DTT-refractory rabbit anti-S. marcescens O-agglutinins resided in the IgM immunoglobulin class.
A strain of Salmonella isangi was isolated from HUMANA milk, used a baby food in Bulgarian hospitals. It harbours two stable plasmids, distinguishable by their molecular weight of 21 Mdal for the transfer factor (rRB 1) and 9,3 Mdal for R-factor rRB 2, confering resistance to ampicillin, cephalothin, streptomycin and sulfonamides. Both plasmids are maintained in different copy numbers per chromosome genome equivalent, 8 copies for rRB 1 and 158 copies for rRB 2, associated with an unusual high level of resistance to ampicillin (MIC 65 mg/ml).
