The molecular epidemiology of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in the Czech Republic.

OBJECTIVES: To gain data on the current molecular epidemiology and resistance of MRSA in the Czech Republic. METHODS: Between September 2017 and January 2018, a total of 441 single-patient MRSA isolates were collected from 11 Czech hospitals and analysed by spa typing, SCCmec typing, antibiotic susceptibility testing, detection of the PVL toxin and the arcA gene. RESULTS: Of all MRSA isolates, 81.41% (n = 359) belonged to the CC5-MRSA clone represented by the spa types t003 (n = 136), t586 (n = 92), t014 (n = 81), t002 (n = 20) and other spa types (n = 30); a majority of the CC5 isolates (n = 348, 96.94%) carried SCCmec type II. The occurrence of CC5-MRSA was more likely in older inpatients and associated with a healthcare origin (P < 0.001). The CC5-MRSA isolates were resistant to more antimicrobial drugs compared with the other MRSAs (P < 0.001). Interestingly, t586 was detected in blood samples more often than the other spa types and, contrary to other spa types belonging to CC5-MRSA, t586 was not associated with patients of advanced age. Other frequently found lineages were CC8 (n = 17), CC398 (n = 11) and CC59 (n = 10). The presence of the PVL was detected in 8.62% (n = 38) of the MRSA isolates. CONCLUSIONS: The healthcare-associated CC5-MRSA-II lineage (t003, t586, t014) was found to be predominant in the Czech Republic. t586 is a newly emerging spa type in the Czech Republic, yet reported rarely in other countries. Our observations stress the need for MRSA surveillance in the Czech Republic in order to monitor changes in MRSA epidemiology.

The association of a reduced susceptibility to moxifloxacin in causative Clostridium (Clostridioides) difficile strain with the clinical outcome of patients.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the relationship between Clostridium (Clostridioides) difficile strain characteristics and C. difficile infection (CDI) outcome. METHODS: Between October and December 2017, 16 hospitals collected epidemiological data according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) surveillance protocol for CDI. C. difficile isolates were characterized by ribotyping, toxin genes detection and antibiotic susceptibility testing to metronidazole, vancomycin and moxifloxacin. RESULTS: The overall mean CDI incidence density was 4.5 [95% CI 3.6-5.3] cases per 10,000 patient-days. From the 433 CDI cases, 330 (76.2%) were healthcare-associated, 52 (12.0%) cases were community-associated or of unknown origin and 51 (11.8%) CDI cases recurrent; a complicated course of CDI was reported in 65 cases (15.0%). Eighty-eight (20.3%) of patients died and 59 of them within 30 days after the CDI diagnosis. From the 379 C. difficile isolates, the most prevalent PCR ribotypes were 001 (n = 127, 33.5%) and 176 (n = 44, 11.6%). A total of 186 (49.1%) isolates showed a reduced susceptibility to moxifloxacin (> 4 mg/L) and 96.4% of them had Thr82Ile in the GyrA. Nineteen isolates revealed reduced susceptibility to metronidazole and two isolates to vancomycin (> 2 mg/L). A fatal outcome was associated with a reduced susceptibility to moxifloxacin, the advanced age of the patients and a complicated course of CDI (p<0.05). No association between ribotype, binary toxin and a reduced susceptibility to moxifloxacin and complicated course or recurrent CDI was found. CONCLUSIONS: A reduced susceptibility to moxifloxacin, in causative C. difficile strains was associated with fatal outcome of the patients, therefore it is an important marker in surveillance of CDI.

[Preliminary identification of clinically significant Clostridium species]. / Predbezná identifikace klinicky významných druhu kostridií.

Preliminary identification of clinically significant Clostridium spp. is based on evaluating their microscopic and macroscopic morphology, Gram staining (Gram stain-positive structure of the bacterial wall), positive production of lecithinase, lipase and proteolytic activity on egg yolk agar, and simple chemical tests. If this preliminary identification is not sufficient, biochemical identification is performed, along with 16S-rRNA sequencing of the bacterial genome. The article comments on options of preliminary identification of clinically significant Clostridium spp.