International Microorganism Day: facilitating global outreach events using a decentralized model.

On 17 September 1683, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, a Dutch merchant who lacked formal education and fortune, wrote a letter to the Royal Society of London describing for the first time a single-celled organism. As a tribute to this revolutionary discovery, the Portuguese Society of Microbiology with the support of the Federation of European Microbiological Societies in 2017, designated this day as International Microorganism Day (IMD), a day aiming to raise awareness about the wonderful world of microbes. Six years after the establishment of IMD, the knowledge of microbiology outreach around this celebration has expanded greatly, with 5 years of in-person and 2 years of online events. The peak of these commemorations was in 2023, with 63 parallel outreach events and more than 5000 attendees, most of which were children, and young adults. While these in-person events were occurring in the month of September, the #InternationalMicroorganismDay hashtag reached nearly 2.3 million people online, reflecting the number of users who have seen a post containing this hashtag on social media. Using a decentralized model to facilitate 63 grass-roots teams to organize events locally, IMD achieved global representation both online and offline. This paper presents details behind the organization and data on the international impact of the IMD 2022 and 2023 events, outlines plans to expand reach to more countries and audiences, and encourages readers to participate with their own events in future IMD editions so that global impact can be expanded even further.

Update on Biosafety and Emerging Infections for the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory.

Biosafety risks are prevalent in all areas of the clinical laboratories. Clinical laboratorians have become accustomed to accepting these risks. When an emerging pathogen appears, the concerns become elevated. Since the appearance of Ebola virus in the United States in 2014, biosafety practices have made progress. A recent Association of Public Health Laboratories survey shows that clinical laboratories are unprepared for current and emerging biosafety challenges. This article focuses on the biosafety program that clinical laboratory leaders should build to meet the needs of clinical laboratories; biosafety challenges of automated laboratory systems, facilities, personnel, and practices; and the relationship with occupational health.

Fellowship Training for the Future Clinical Microbiology Laboratory Director.

Formal medical and public health microbiology (MPHM) fellowship programs play a key role in preparing future clinical microbiology laboratory directors for their leadership and management responsibilities. Given the continually evolving MPHM field, fellowships must remain adaptable to changes in the field, providing trainees with the opportunity to engage with newly emerging diagnostic modalities, while continuing to emphasize the "bread and butter" techniques of clinical microbiology. This article discusses the key components of a fellowship program and provides recommendations for incorporating educational best practices.

[Work flow of clinical microbiology laboratory in the epidemic of the coronavirus disease 2019].

The burn microbiology laboratory of the author's unit is a level Ⅱ biosafety laboratory, which is mainly responsible for handling clinical microbial samples from our department and other departments in the hospital. Since the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019, in order to ensure the normal operation of routine work and the safety of medical staff, the microbiology laboratory has actively adjusted the daily work flow. The detailed work flow is summarized as follows to provide references for the safety protection of peer in clinical microbiology laboratory.

Binning Singletons: Mentoring through Networking at ASM Microbe 2019.

The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) national conference, Microbe, is the flagship meeting for microbiologists across the globe. The presence of roughly 10,000 attendees provides enormous opportunities for networking and learning. However, such a large meeting can be intimidating to many, especially early career scientists, students, those attending alone, and those from historically underrepresented groups. While mentorship is widely valued by ASM and its members, finding concrete ways to develop new and diverse mentoring opportunities can be a challenge. We recognized the need for an initiative aimed at expanding peer-to-peer mentoring, facilitating networking, and providing support for Microbe attendees; therefore, we created the program Binning Singletons for ASM Microbe 2019. The program consisted of five steps named after tools or phenomena in the profession of microbiology: (i) Identify the Singletons (e.g., individuals attending alone), (ii) Bin the Singletons, (iii) Horizontal Transfer, (iv) Quorum Sensing, and (v) Exponential Growth. These steps resulted in the matching of participants unsure of how to get the most out of their conference experience (e.g., singletons) with mentors who assisted with meeting planning, networking, and/or impostor syndrome. Started on social media only a month before ASM Microbe 2019, the program successfully launched despite limited time and resources. Binning Singletons improved inclusivity and networking opportunities for participants at the conference. Here, we discuss what worked, and what can be improved, with an eye toward development of the Binning Singletons model for future conferences to provide opportunities to increase inclusivity, networking, and accessibility for singletons and build a stronger scientific community.

Antimicrobial de-escalation in critically ill patients: a position statement from a task force of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) and European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) Critically Ill Patients Study Group (ESGCIP).

BACKGROUND: Antimicrobial de-escalation (ADE) is a strategy of antimicrobial stewardship, aiming at preventing the emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) by decreasing the exposure to broad-spectrum antimicrobials. There is no high-quality research on ADE and its effects on AMR. Its definition varies and there is little evidence-based guidance for clinicians to use ADE in the intensive care unit (ICU). METHODS: A task force of 16 international experts was formed in November 2016 to provide with guidelines for clinical practice to develop questions targeted at defining ADE, its effects on the ICU population and to provide clinical guidance. Groups of 2 experts were assigned 1-2 questions each within their field of expertise to provide draft statements and rationale. A Delphi method, with 3 rounds and an agreement threshold of 70% was required to reach consensus. RESULTS: We present a comprehensive document with 13 statements, reviewing the evidence on the definition of ADE, its effects in the ICU population and providing guidance for clinicians in subsets of clinical scenarios where ADE may be considered. CONCLUSION: ADE remains a topic of controversy due to the complexity of clinical scenarios where it may be applied and the absence of evidence to the effects it may have on antimicrobial resistance.

Experience of Indian association of medical microbiology external quality assurance scheme centre, New Delhi: Challenges and quality assessment of clinical microbiology laboratories.

Introduction: EQAS program at New Delhi under IAMM was started in January 2014 across North and North east regions of India with 217 participants, which grew up to 540 by 2018. Materials and Methods: In 2014, 4 analytes per year were sent for 3 exercises, i.e. smear culture and serology. 2018 onwards PT analytes were increased from 4 to 12 and comparative performance of techniques analysed. Results: Out of the 22 smears sent for gram staining, ZN staining, Kinyoun staining and Albert staining, completely correct results ranged between 29.55% - 79.9%, 94.3% - 99.2%, 35.5% & 93.8%, respectively. Correct results for culture isolate identification & susceptibility testing and serology exercises varied between 70 & 92.4% and 73.1 & 98.59%, respectively. In the year 2018, 470 responses were received for bacterial culture identification & antibiotic susceptibility testing out of which manual and automated systems were used by 54% & 46% and 52.5% & 47.5% participants, respectively. Techniques used in BBV assays for HBsAg, HCV & HIV found all methods like ELISA, ELFA, CLIA and Card Test performing similarly. The major challenges in running the EQA program included requirement of large amount of specimens for PT item preparation, stability in hot and humid conditions and timely delivery of PT challenges in remote parts of the country. Conclusion: A large number of the participating laboratories (77%) had an overall score of >80% for all exercises, demonstrating acceptable baseline performance of EQAS registered laboratories. However, continued EQAS participation could further improve the quality of results.