An outbreak due to Candida auris with prolonged colonisation and candidaemia in a tertiary care European hospital.

Multidrug-resistant Candida auris has emerged as a cause of insidious hospital outbreaks and complicated infections. We present the analysis of an ongoing C. auris outbreak including the largest published series of C. auris bloodstream infection. All C. auris-positive patients from April-2016 to January-2017 were included. Environmental, clinical and microbiological data were recorded. Definitive isolate identification was performed by ITS-rDNA sequencing, and typing by amplified fragment length polymorphism fingerprinting. One hundred and forty patients were colonised by C. auris during the studied period (68% from surgical intensive care). Although control measures were implemented, we were not able to control the outbreak. Forty-one invasive bloodstream infections (87.8% from surgical intensive care) were included. Clinical management included prompt intravascular catheter removal and antifungal therapy with echinocandins. All isolates were fluconazole- and voriconazole-resistant, but echinocandin- and amphotericin B-susceptible. Thirty-day mortality rate was 41.4%, and severe septic metastasis as spondylodiscitis and endocarditis were observed in 5 patients (12%). C. auris was also recovered from inanimate patient surroundings and medical equipment. Despite antifungal treatment, high mortality and late complication rates were recorded. Molecular typing suggested a clonal outbreak different from those previously published.

Influence of environmental conditions and pollution on the incidence of Streptococcus pneumoniae infections.

Fossil fuel derived pollutants (SO2, NO), dry air and cold increase the incidence of S. pneumoniae infections http://ow.ly/RnLW30gogb1.

Bloodstream infections in adult patients undergoing cord blood transplantation from unrelated donors after myeloablative conditioning regimen.

The incidence, epidemiology, and risk factors of bloodstream infection (BSI) and their impact on transplant outcomes after umbilical cord blood transplantation (UCBT) are not well defined. Between May 1997 and December 2012, 202 isolates in 189 episodes of BSI were registered in 134 of 241 patients who underwent single-unit myeloablative UCBT. Cumulative incidence (CI) of developing at least 1 episode of BSI was 21%, 29%, 34%, 42%, and 52% at days +7, +14, +30, +100, and +365, respectively. The median time of onset for the first BSI episode was day +10 (range, day -7 to +1217). Early BSI before day 7 was associated with increased nonrelapse mortality (relative risk [RR], 1.5; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.1 to 2.3; P = .04), whereas BSI before day 14 was an independent adverse risk factor for neutrophil recovery (RR, .6; 95% CI, .5 to .9; P = .002). A higher CD8(+) cell dose of the graft was the only variable independently associated with reduced risk of BSI (RR, .1; 95% CI, .02 to .7; P = .02). The gram-negative rod (GNR) to gram-positive bacteria ratio was .9 before day +30 and 1.6 thereafter (P = .03). Escherichia coli (31%) and Pseudomonas sp. (28%) were the most frequently isolated among GNR. The overall crude mortality rate was 12% at day 7 and was higher for GNR (18%) compared with gram-positive bacteria (7%) (P = .03). These findings emphasize the importance of preventing bacterial infections during conditioning and the very early post-UCBT period.

Epidemiological cutoff values for fluconazole, itraconazole, posaconazole, and voriconazole for six Candida species as determined by the colorimetric Sensititre YeastOne method.

In the absence of clinical breakpoints (CBP), epidemiological cutoff values (ECVs) are useful to separate wild-type (WT) isolates (without mechanisms of resistance) from non-WT isolates (those that can harbor some resistance mechanisms), which is the goal of susceptibility tests. Sensititre YeastOne (SYO) is a widely used method to determine susceptibility of Candida spp. to antifungal agents. The CLSI CBP have been established, but not for the SYO method. The ECVs for four azoles, obtained using MIC distributions determined by the SYO method, were calculated via five methods (three statistical methods and based on the MIC50 and modal MIC). Respectively, the median ECVs (in mg/liter) of the five methods for fluconazole, itraconazole, posaconazole, and voriconazole (in parentheses: the percentage of isolates inhibited by MICs equal to or less than the ECVs; the number of isolates tested) were as follows: 2 (94.4%; 944), 0.5 (96.7%; 942), 0.25 (97.6%; 673), and 0.06 (96.7%; 849) for Candida albicans; 4 (86.1%; 642), 0.5 (99.4%; 642), 0.12 (93.9%; 392), and 0.06 (86.9%; 559) for C. parapsilosis; 8 (94.9%; 175), 1 (93.7%; 175), 2 (93.6%; 125), and 0.25 (90.4%; 167) for C. tropicalis; 128 (98.6%; 212), 4 (95.8%; 212), 4 (96.0%; 173), and 2 (98.5; 205) for C. glabrata; 256 (100%; 53), 1 (98.1%; 53), 1 (100%; 33), and 1 (97.9%; 48) for C. krusei; 4 (89.2%; 93), 0.5 (100%; 93), 0.25 (100%; 33), and 0.06 (87.7%; 73) for C. orthopsilosis. All methods included ≥94% of isolates and yielded similar ECVs (within 1 dilution). These ECVs would be suitable for monitoring emergence of isolates with reduced susceptibility by using the SYO method.