Antimicrobial Susceptibility of Bacterial Pathogens from Patients with Ocular Surface Infections in Germany, 2020-2021: A Comparison with the Data from Three Previous National Studies.

Bacteria are a major cause of superficial eye infections, especially in children. The present study aimed to (i) determine the antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of ocular bacterial pathogens recovered in 20 laboratories during the period 2020-2021 and (ii) compare these results to those from three studies of the same design conducted in 2004, 2009, and 2015 in Germany. Cut-off values defined by EUCAST were used as breakpoints. A total of 1366 bacterial isolates were collected. The most frequent ocular specimens were conjunctival smears (54.3%). Susceptibility rates of Staphylococcus aureus (n = 594), Haemophilus influenzae (n = 178), and Streptococcus pneumoniae (n = 149) to chloramphenicol, gentamicin, kanamycin, neomycin, levofloxacin, ofloxacin, and oxytetracycline were >90% each. Overall, only minor changes in resistance levels were observed in the period since 2004. Therefore, all tested antimicrobials can still be recommended for local therapy of ocular surface infections.

In Vitro Activity of Cefiderocol against Clinical Gram-Negative Isolates Originating from Germany in 2016/17.

Antimicrobial resistance poses a global threat to public health. Of great concern are Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacterales with resistance to carbapenems or third-generation cephalosporins. The aim of the present study was to investigate the in vitro activity of the novel siderophore cephaloporin cefiderocol (CID) and four comparator ß-lactam-ß-lactamase-inhibitor combinations and to give insights into the genetic background of CID-resistant isolates. In total, 301 clinical Enterobacterales and non-fermenting bacterial isolates were selected for this study, including randomly chosen isolates (set I, n = 195) and challenge isolates (set II, n = 106; enriched with ESBL and carbapenemase producers, as well as colistin-resistant isolates). Isolates displayed CID MIC50/90 values of 0.12/0.5 mg/L (set I) and 0.5/1 mg/L (set II). Overall, the CID activity was superior to the comparators against A. baumannii, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia and set II isolates of P. aeruginosa. There were eight CID-resistant isolates detected (MIC > 2 mg/L): A. baumannii (n = 1), E. cloacae complex (n = 5) and P. aeruginosa (n = 2). Sequencing analyses of these isolates detected the acquired ß-lactamase (bla) genes blaNDM-1,blaSHV-12 and naturally occurring blaOXA-396, blaACT-type and blaCMH-3. In conclusion, CID revealed potent activity against clinically relevant organisms of multidrug-resistant Enterobacterales and non-fermenters.