Epidemiology and antimicrobial resistance of Mycobacterium spp. in the United Arab Emirates: a retrospective analysis of 12 years of national antimicrobial resistance surveillance data.

Introduction: The Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO) region accounts for almost 8% of all global Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) cases, with TB incidence rates ranging from 1 per 100,000 per year in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to 204 per 100,000 in Djibouti. The national surveillance data from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region on the epidemiology and antimicrobial resistance trends of TB, including MDR-TB remains scarce. Methods: A retrospective 12-year analysis of N = 8,086 non-duplicate diagnostic Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTB complex) isolates from the UAE was conducted. Data were generated through routine patient care during the 2010-2021 years, collected by trained personnel and reported by participating surveillance sites to the UAE National Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Surveillance program. Data analysis was conducted with WHONET, a windows-based microbiology laboratory database management software developed by the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance, Boston, United States (https://whonet.org/). Results: A total of 8,086 MTB-complex isolates were analyzed. MTB-complex was primarily isolated from respiratory samples (sputum 80.1%, broncho-alveolar lavage 4.6%, pleural fluid 4.1%). Inpatients accounted for 63.2%, including 1.3% from ICU. Nationality was known for 84.3% of patients, including 3.8% Emiratis. Of UAE non-nationals, 80.5% were from 110 countries, most of which were Asian countries. India accounted for 20.8%, Pakistan 13.6%, Philippines 12.7%, and Bangladesh 7.8%. Rifampicin-resistant MTB-complex isolates (RR-TB) were found in 2.8% of the isolates, resistance to isoniazid, streptomycin, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol, was 8.9, 6.9, 3.4 and 0.4%, respectively. A slightly increasing trend of resistance among MTB-complex was observed for rifampicin from 2.5% (2010) to 2.8% (2021). Conclusion: Infections due to MTB-complex are relatively uncommon in the United Arab Emirates compared to other countries in the MENA region. Most TB patients in the UAE are of Asian origin, mainly from countries with a high prevalence of TB. Resistance to first line anti-tuberculous drugs is generally low, however increasing trends for MDR-TB mainly rifampicin linked resistance is a major concern. MDR-TB was not associated with a higher mortality, admission to ICU, or increased length of hospitalization as compared to non-MDR-TB.

Unveiling the dynamics of antimicrobial utilization and resistance in a large hospital network over five years: Insights from health record data analysis.

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) presents a pressing public health challenge globally which has been compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. Elucidation of the impact of the pandemic on AMR evolution using population-level data that integrates clinical, laboratory and prescription data remains lacking. Data was extracted from the centralized electronic platform which captures the health records of 60,551 patients with a confirmed infection across the network of public healthcare facilities in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. For all inpatients and outpatients diagnosed with bacterial infection between 01/01/2017 and 31/05/2022, structured and unstructured Electronic Health Record data, microbiological laboratory data including antibiogram, molecular typing and COVID-19 testing information as well as antibiotic prescribing data were extracted curated and linked. Various analytical methods, including time-series analysis, natural language processing (NLP) and unsupervised clustering algorithms, were employed to investigate the trends of antimicrobial usage and resistance over time, assess the impact of prescription practices on resistance rates, and explore the effects of COVID-19 on antimicrobial usage and resistance. Our findings identified a significant impact of COVID-19 on antimicrobial prescription practices, with short-term and long-lasting over-prescription of these drugs. Resistance to antimicrobials increased the odds ratio of all mortality to an average of 2.18 (95% CI: 1.87-2.49) for the most commonly prescribed antimicrobials. Moreover, the effects of antimicrobial prescription practices on resistance were observed within one week of initiation. Significant trends in antimicrobial resistance, exhibiting fluctuations for various drugs and organisms, with an overall increasing trend in resistance levels, particularly post-COVID-19 were identified. This study provides a population-level insight into the evolution of AMR in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. The findings emphasize the impact of COVID-19 on the AMR crisis, which remained evident even two years after the onset of the pandemic. This underscores the necessity for enhanced antimicrobial stewardship to address the evolution of AMR.

Clinical Impact of the BIOFIRE Blood Culture Identification 2 Panel in Adult Patients with Bloodstream Infection: A Multicentre Observational Study in the United Arab Emirates.

Rapid pathogen identification is key to the proper management of patients with bloodstream infections (BSIs), especially in the intensive care setting. This multicentre study compared the time to pathogen identification results in 185 patients admitted to intensive care with a confirmed BSI, using conventional methods (n = 99 patients) and upon implementation of the BIOFIRE® Blood Culture Identification 2 (BCID2) Panel, a rapid molecular test allowing for the simultaneous identification of 43 BSI-related nucleic acids targets (n = 86 patients). The median time to result informing optimal antibiotic therapy was significantly shorter following the implementation of the BCID2 Panel (92 vs. 28 h pre vs. post BCID2 implementation; p < 0.0001). BCID2 usage in addition to conventional methods led to the identification of at least one pathogen in 98.8% patients vs. 87.9% using conventional methods alone (p = 0.003) and was associated with a lower 30-day mortality (17.3% vs. 31.6%, respectively; p = 0.019). This study at three intensive care units in the United Arab Emirates therefore demonstrates that, in addition to conventional microbiological methods and an effective antimicrobial stewardship program, the BCID2 Panel could improve the clinical outcome of patients admitted to the intensive care unit with a confirmed BSI.

Characterization of mutations causing rifampicin and isoniazid resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Syria.

In order to characterize mutations causing rifampicin and isoniazid resistance of M. tuberculosis in Syria, 69 rifampicin resistant (Rif(r)) and 72 isoniazid resistant (Inh(r)) isolates were screened for point mutations in hot spots of the rpoB, katG and inhA genes by DNA sequencing and real time PCR. Of 69 Rif(r) isolates, 62 (90%) had mutations in the rifampin resistance determining region (RRDR) of the rpoB gene, with codons 531 (61%), 526 (13%), and 516 (8.7%) being the most commonly mutated. We found two new mutations (Asp516Thr and Ser531Gly) described for the first time in the rpoB-RRDR in association with rifampicin resistance. Only one mutation (Ile572Phe) was found outside the rpoB-RRDR. Of 72 Inh(r) strains, 30 (41.6%) had a mutation in katGcodon315 (with Ser315Thr being the predominant alteration), and 23 (32%) harbored the inhA(-15C-->T) mutation. While the general pattern of rpoB-RRDR and katG mutations reflected those found worldwide, the prevalence of the inhA(-15C-->T mutation was above the value found in most other countries, emphasizing the great importance of testing the inhA(-15C-->T) mutation for prediction of isoniazid resistance in Syria. Sensitivity of a rapid test using real time PCR and 3'-Minor groove binder (MGB) probes in detecting Rif(r) and Inh(r) isolates was 90% and 69.4%, respectively. This demonstrates that a small set of MGB-probes can be used in real time PCR in order to detect most mutations causing resistance to rifampicin and isoniazid.

Pattern of primary tuberculosis drug resistance and associated risk factors at Dubai health authority in Dubai.

Background: The objective of this study is to determine the initial drug resistance pattern among new tuberculosis (TB) cases and assess the extent of association with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and diabetes mellitus (DM). Method: This is a retrospective analysis of 1116 clinical isolates were collected from patients who were newly diagnosed with TB at TB Laboratory between January 2016 and November 2019 and used for determining drug-resistance profiles against five first-line and five second-line anti-TB drugs; and the results were assessed the association between TB risk factors and primary drug resistance TB. Results: Of the 1116 newly diagnosed TB patients, 193 (17.3%) showed resistance to at least one or more of the first-line drugs by different patterns, 105 (9.4%) showed resistance to one drug, 38 (3.40%) showed polyresistance, 50 (4.5%) showed multidrug resistant (MDR), and one patient had extensively drug resistant. Mono-resistance to isoniazid (INH), STR, pyrazinamide, and rifampicin were seen in 40 (3.6%), 33 (2.95%), 29 (2.59%), and 3 (0.3%) of isolates, respectively. INH showed the highest percentage of resistance among the patients. Of 1116 newly diagnosed TB patients, 256 (22.9%) were TB-DM cases and 135 (12.9%) were TB-no DM cases. The rates of drug resistance-TB 46/1116 (4.12%), monoresistance 25 (2.24%), polyresistance 9 (0.8%), and MDR 12 (1.07%) among TB-DM group were higher than TB-no DM group. Conclusion: Our study confirms that resistance to INH was the most common phenomenon. We found that diabetes was identified as a risk factor of TB drug resistance. We did not find a significant association between HIV co-infection and TB drug-resistance.

Evaluation of GeneXpert Mycobacterium tuberculosis/Rifampin for the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex and rifampicin resistance in nonrespiratory clinical specimens.

Background: The objective of this study is to assess the performance of Xpert Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB)/rifampin (RIF), an automated molecular test for MTB and resistance to RIF, against smear microscopy and culture method for the diagnosis of MTB infection. Methods: This is a retrospective analysis of 168 nonrespiratory patient specimens suspected of tuberculosis (TB) at TB Laboratory of Dubai Health Authority in the United Arab Emirates between September 2016 and November 2018. Each sample underwent smear microscopy, mycobacterial culture, and GeneXpert MTB/RIF test. Results: Of 168 nonrespiratory samples, 52 samples were positive by both culture and Xpert MTB/RIF, 9 samples were detected positive only by culture. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative value of the Xpert MTB/RIF test were 82.69%, 100%, 100%, and 92.80%, respectively. No false positive was yielded by the Xpert MTB/RIF, and all 116 samples were true negative by Xpert MTB/RIF. The sensitivity of the Xpert MTB/RIF was 76.92% in lymph node tissue and aspirates, 66.67% in cerebrospinal fluid, 100% in gastric lavage and aspirate, 81.25% in other body fluids, 100% in pus, 85.71% in urine, and 66.67% in other tissue samples. Of 168 strains, five strains were rifampicin resistant by phenotypic and Xpert MTB/RIF and 163 were susceptible to rifampicin with culture and Xpert MTB/RIF. Conclusion: The performance of Xpert MTB/RIF assay was comparable to the gold standard culture method for identification of MTB in nonrespiratory clinical specimens. It does not replace the gold standard culture method, but it helps to achieve better sensitivity and obtain rapid results within 2 h.

Testing for the presence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Beijing genotype strains in Syrian samples.

The Beijing family of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) has been reported to have an exceptional capacity to spread tuberculosis (TB) and induce multi-drug resistance. A method has been developed to distinguish this family from the rest of the MTB families through real-time DNA amplification and subsequent analysis of the melting point of an amplicon. Two pools of multi-drug resistant (MDR) MTB samples collected at two different time periods from various regions in Syria have been selected. This preliminary screening indicated a complete absence of the Beijing family in all samples. This research presents an effective differentiation of bacterial Beijing strains, with minimal effort and cost through analysis of differential amplicon melting points.