The Impact of COVID-19 on Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria at a Slovenian Tertiary Medical Center.

The COVID-19 pandemic has strained healthcare systems globally. Shortages of hospital beds, reassignment of healthcare workers to COVID-19-dedicated wards, an increased workload, and evolving infection prevention and control measures have potentially contributed to the spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria (MDRB). To determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic at the University Medical Center Ljubljana, a tertiary teaching hospital, we analyzed the monthly incidence of select bacterial species per patient from 2018 to 2022. The analysis was performed for all isolates and for MDRB isolates. The data were analyzed separately for isolates from all clinical samples, from blood culture only, and from clinical and surveillance samples. Our findings revealed an increased incidence density of patients with Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates from clinical samples during the COVID-19 period in the studied hospital. Notably, the incidence density of MDRB isolates-vancomycin-resistant E. faecium, extended-spectrum betalactamase-producing K. pneumoniae, and betalactam-resistant P. aeruginosa-from clinical samples increased during the COVID-19 period. There were no statistically significant differences in the incidence density of patients with blood culture MDRB isolates. We observed an increase in the overall MDRB burden (patients with MDRB isolates from both clinical and surveillance samples per 1000 patient days) in the COVID-19 period in the studied hospital for vancomycin-resistant E. faecium, carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae, and betalactam-resistant P. aeruginosa and a decrease in the methicillin-resistant S. aureus burden.

A retrospective analysis of clinical characteristics and management of perianal streptococcal dermatitis in children and adults.

INTRODUCTION: Due to the paucity of recent literature on perianal streptococcal disease (PSD), we performed a comprehensive analysis of clinical characteristics of PSD and its management. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective search in the laboratory information system of the Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, Ljubljana, Slovenia, between January 2006 and December 2016 and identified patients with suspected PSD. We reviewed patients' medical records and obtained data on patient age and sex, concomitant illnesses, duration of complaints, signs and symptoms of PSD, epidemiological history, date of diagnosis, microbiological characteristics of beta-hemolytic streptococcal isolates, additional laboratory findings, duration and type of systemic and/or topical therapy, and recurrence of PSD. RESULTS: We identified 64 pediatric and eight adult PSD cases in total. The most common signs and symptoms were perianal erythema (67/72; 93.1%), anal fissures (28/72; 38.8%), itching (22/72; 30.6%), and blood-streaked stools (19/72; 26.4%). The duration of symptoms varied from < 1 week to > 1 year, with 58.3% of patients experiencing symptoms between 1 week and 6 months. The majority of patients received systemic (63/72; 87.5%) and topical (56/72; 77.8%) treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Although the signs and symptoms of PSD are non-specific, clinicians should be highly suspicious of the disease in adults and especially in preschool children with perianal complaints. Despite being a common disease, there is still considerable delay in correct diagnosis and treatment, prolonging the discomfort of PSD patients.

Microbiological characteristics of perianal streptococcal dermatitis: a retrospective study of 105 patients in a 10-year period.

Beta-hemolytic streptococci (BHS) are the most common causative agents of perianal streptococcal dermatitis (PSD). This study evaluates the distribution of BHS isolates in perianal bacterial cultures. We retrospectively reviewed microbiological results for perianal BHS that were isolated in our laboratory between 2006 and 2015. We identified a total of 105 BHS isolates from rectal swabs and swabs of clinically intact perianal skin. The majority of BHS were of group A (GABHS) (73/105; 69.5%), followed by group B BHS (GBBHS) (27/105; 25.7%), and non-group A or B BHS (5/105; 4.8%). The distribution of GABHS was age-specific, with the majority of GABHS obtained from young children. All BHS isolates were susceptible to penicillin. GABHS were universally susceptible to clindamycin, whereas 1.4% were resistant to erythromycin. GBBHS were resistant to erythromycin and clindamycin in 14.8% and 7.4% of cases. In addition, we wanted to emphasize the importance of correct diagnosis of PSD. Hence, we provide a review of protocols that can decrease the time to diagnosis and treatment of PSD, reduce patients' discomfort, and prevent unnecessary diagnostic procedures.

Molecular characterization of Staphylococcus aureus isolates from skin and soft tissue infections samples and healthy carriers in the Central Slovenia region.

Staphylococcus aureus is among the most important human pathogens. It is associated with different infections and is a major cause of skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs). The aim of our study was to compare S. aureus isolates associated with SSTIs with isolates obtained from healthy carriers in the Central Slovenia region in terms of antimicrobial susceptibility, genetic diversity by clonal complex (CC)/sequence type, spa type, and by toxin gene profiling. In total, 274 S. aureus isolates were collected prospectively by culturing wound samples from 461 SSTI patients and nasal samples from 451 healthy carriers. We have demonstrated high heterogeneity in terms of CCs and spa type in both groups of isolates. The main clone among SSTI strains was Panton-Valentine leukocidin gene (pvl) positive CC121, whereas the main clone among carrier strains was CC45 carrying a large range of toxin genes. The main spa type in both groups was t091. Pvl was more frequently present in SSTI strains (31.2% SSTI vs 3.6% carrier strains) and staphylococcal enterotoxin C was more frequently present in carrier strains (1.6% SSTI vs 17.0% carrier strains). We have also demonstrated that methicillin-resistant S. aureus was a rare cause (2.8%) of SSTIs in our region.

Fulminant peritonitis presumably caused by Panton-Valentine leukocidin-positive Staphylococcus aureus in a girl on peritoneal dialysis.

Peritonitis is a significant complication of peritoneal dialysis (PD) and the most common cause of technique failure. Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL), a cytotoxin produced by certain strains of Staphylococcus aureus (SA), causes destruction of neutrophils, and is associated with severe invasive infections. We present a 2.5-year-old girl on PD, who presented suddenly with an unusually fulminant and protracted course of peritonitis. Only a few hours after the onset of clinical signs, septic shock developed. PVL-positive methicillin-sensitive SA (MSSA) was grown and initial empiric antibiotic treatment changed to flucloxacillin and rifampicin in order to minimize toxin production. In spite of adequate antibiotic treatment and PD-catheter removal, recovery was slow. No PD-related peritonitis in children associated with PVL-producing strains have been reported so far and no specific recommendation exists for treatment. We speculate that PVL contributed to the severity and outcome of peritonitis in our patient.

One-year experience with modified BD GeneOhm MRSA assay for detection of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus from pooled nasal, skin, and throat samples.

We report our 1-year experience with modified GeneOhm MRSA assay (formerly IDI-MRSA) for pooled surveillance specimens in low methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) prevalence clinical setting. We have successfully modified the GeneOhm MRSA assay protocol during the specimen preparation step by adding an extra washing step followed by pooling of up to 3 samples per patient (nose, skin, with or without throat) at the lysis step. The sensitivity of the modified assay compared with conventional cultivation was 94.3%, specificity 99.2%, negative predictive value 99.2%, and positive predictive value 94.3%. The modified test is reliable and performed well compared with conventional culture methods in our clinical setting with low-level prevalence of MRSA colonization. Our findings support the use of pooling of the patients samples as a cost-effective way of screening for MRSA colonization.

Cluster of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia endocarditis after prosthetic valve replacement.

Early postoperative prosthetic valve endocarditis due to Stenotrophomonas maltophilia was diagnosed in seven patients (two men) aged from 68 to 84 years (mean age 78.1 years) over a three-year period. All patients had undergone aortic valve replacement. S. maltophilia was isolated from at least two blood cultures per patient. Four patients experienced CNS embolic complications. Three patients died. All patients were treated with ceftazidime, one in combination with amikacin, one with ciprofloxacin and one with levofloxacin. Because a common source of infection in the operating theater was suspected, 24 environmental samples were taken, of which two contained S. maltophilia. Six of the seven clinical isolates from the patients and two isolates from the environment were analyzed using molecular typing by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). The patients' isolates were resistant to gentamicin, ciprofloxacin, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole and, except in one case, to amikacin and piperacillin/tazobactam and susceptible to ceftazidime and levofloxacin. In contrast, the environmental isolates were resistant to ceftazidime, showed intermediate susceptibility to ciprofloxacin, and were susceptible to trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole. PFGE demonstrated indistinguishable or closely related (1-3 band difference) PFGE patterns in isolates from the patients, but a different pattern in the environmental isolates. No common source of infection was found despite intensive investigation. Extensive cleaning and other measures of infection control were carried out and no new cases were recorded in the two year follow-up period.