[Salmonella montevideo from a hospital outbreak with different antibiograms determined by a plasmid]. / Salmonella montevideo-Hospitalismus mit unterschiedlichen Antibiogrammen durch ein Plasmid.

From May to June 1984 an outbreak of Salmonella montevideo occurred in the neonatal ward of a district's hospital. 26 babies were involved and mild forms of disease were observed in the most cases. The infants were hospitalized from different reasons and treated chemotherapeutically prior to the nosocomial infection. The Salmonella montevideo strains isolated from the faeces of the infants showed five different antibiograms. In all strains the multiple drug resistance was determined by a single plasmid belonging to the incompatibility group C and with a molecular weight of 110 Md or 100 Md in the threefold resistant strains. These plasmids were found also in the faecal flora (E. coli and Klebsiella) of all patients. It is suggested that a transfer of the plasmids from E. coli or Klebsiella to Salmonella montevideo occurred under in vivo condition, since distinct patients excreted susceptible as well as resistant Salmonellae. This example shows the necessity to include antibiogram and plasmid analysis as epidemiological markers.

[Importation of Shigella and Salmonella into East Germany]. / Die Einschleppung von Shigellen und Salmonellen in die DDR.

The international tourist traffic and the import of provisions also involves the importation of Shigella and Salmonella into the GDR. In 1980 9% of the Shigella sonnei infections and 50% of the Shigella flexneri infections were imported from 22 or 26 countries, in most cases from tourist countries, typical for the GDR. The Salmonella are imported mainly by feed-stuff. But also the spreading particularly of polyresistant Salmonella by epidemic processes independent of provisions, above all among newborn, must be taken into consideration. The phage typing, bacteriocinotypy, biochemotypy, the antibioram and the determination of the resistance plasmids stood the test for the epidemiological control.

A new semidefined nutrient medium for bacterial susceptibility testing.

A new semidefined nutrient medium for testing of bacterial resistance against chemotherapeutics is described. Nutrients, poor in antagonists, vitamins and ions are balanced. Full effectiveness in view of sensitivity and expression of bacterial resistance mechanisms of all chemotherapeutics tested is guaranteed. The nutrient medium, known under the trade name "Kulturmedium L4 zur Resistenzbestimmung" is comparable with the new recommended international media for this purpose. Beyond it the nutrient medium is useful for genetical investigations and combined with a diagnostic system for selecting different bacteria contained especially resistance properties.

[Modern epidemiologic and pathogenetic findings illustrated by the example of cholera]. / Moderne epidemiologische und pathogenetische Erkenntnisse, dargestellt am Beispiel der Cholera.

In 1883 Robert Koch isolated and characterized Vibrio comma as the etiological agent of cholera thereby creating a breakthrough in cholera research. Pathogenesis and pathophysiology of diarrheal diseases caused by V. cholerae and enterotoxigenic E. coli are cleared up by the production of enterotoxins and colonizing factors of microorganisms. Plasmids code for antibiotic resistance, distinct enterotoxins, colonization and other virulence factors. Sero-, bio-, phage-, colicino- and plasmid typing are important to epidemiological surveillance.

[Incidence of antibiotic resistance in Salmonella typhimurium strains isolated in different epidemic situations]. / Rasprostranenie ustoichivosti k antibiotikam u shtammov Salmonella typhimurium, vydellennykh pri razlichnykh épidemicheskikh situatsiiakh.

A total of 1800 S. typhimurium strains isolated in different regions of the USSR in 1968-1979 were studied. Of these strains, 68.6% were resistant to 6-8 antibiotics, 7.8% were resistant to 2-5 antibiotics, and 23.6% proved to be resistant to all antibiotics. The number of multiresistant strains sharply increased during the last 10 years. The strains isolated from different sources and in different epidemic situations considerably differed in their sensitivity to the action of antibiotics. The infective agents isolated from the hospital foci of salmonellosis were found to possess the maximum multiresistance. The study of the genetic nature of multiresistance showed that the multiresistance strains had a conjugative R-plasmid with resistance determinants CmTc, type Fin+, incompatibility group F1me. The phage typing of the strains with phages from the collection of the Tbilisi Research Institute for Vaccines and Sera revealed that these strains belonged to phagotype 2. The problems of the relationship between the biological properties of causative agents and the character of the epidemic process of the diseases caused by these agents are discussed.

Enterotoxigenicity among salmonellae--a prospective analysis for a surveillance programme.

Gastroenteritis and food poisoning caused by several Salmonella serotypes are frequently observed in many countries. In particular, S. typhimurium has been found ranking first that put forward the question whether S. typhimurium can be characterized by distinct biological properties. In this paper attempts to characterized 378 Salmonella strains according to their enterotoxigenicity by means of the vascular permeability factor (PF) have been summarized. PF-positive strains are common among all Enteritis-Salmonellae, in particular among S. typhimurium. This serotype is also found with quantitative strongest PF activity. PF-positive strains are found to be active producers of exo-enterotoxins, which have been characterized as LT-enterotoxins by other assays, too. Since the capacity of Enteritis-Salmonellae to produce enterotoxins is in accordance with their clinical and epidemiological importance, the determination of the PF-factor as a rapid screening assay for enterotoxigenicity is proposed in this paper in order to survey epidemiological and clinical significant Salmonellae.