Vaccines are fundamental instruments upon which all modern medicine is hinged. This has recently come into the light because of the COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2. We aimed to assess the knowledge and attitudes of the public regarding vaccination. To this end, a questionnaire, which was disseminated to the general population between 2017 and 2019, was used. We evaluated the responses from 1647 individuals (61% female, with a median age of 37 years, mostly from urban settings). Most respondents (85%) had children and were in favor of vaccination. Our study underlines the role that family physicians have in the education and information of citizens. A small, but considerable, number of respondents (108, 7.84% of those with children) had not vaccinated their children according to the national vaccination scheme. Deterrents were considered to be lack of information and fear of side effects. However, 167 of our respondents (12.12% out of 1377 respondents with children) said that their child experienced adverse events—most of which were mild local reactions. Alternatives to vaccination were proposed by some. In this study, we highlight the attitudes of respondents and multiple gaps in general knowledge, both of which may need to be addressed, especially in light of the current pandemic situation and past failed campaigns.

The rCIM is a rapid (less than 3 h), cheap and accurate test for the detection of CPEs, which can be implemented in low-resource settings, making it a useful tool for microbiology laboratories.

Chronic infections represent an important burden on the healthcare system and have a significant impact on the patients’ quality of life. While Staphylococcus spp. are commensal bacteria, they can become pathogenic, leading to various types of infections. In this study we aimed to characterize the virulence profiles of staphylococcal strains involved in difficult-to-treat skin and soft tissue infections, from both phenotypic and genotypic points of view. Phenotypic ability of the strains to secrete soluble virulence factors was assessed by a culturing dependent assay and their capacity to develop biofilms on inert substrate was screened by an adapted crystal violet microtiter method. We also tested the presence of several virulence genes by PCR. Most of the studied strains were isolated from purulent secretions of acne lesions and frequently secreted two or three soluble virulence factors. Most frequently secreted soluble virulence factors were caseinase (89%), lipase (71%) and lecithinase (67%). Almost half of the strains produced a well-represented biofilm. The molecular characterization showed the presence of the genes cna, hlg, clfA, and clfB. Staphylococcal strains that produce difficult-to-treat skin and soft tissue infections seem to be characterized by an enhanced ability to produce different soluble virulence factors and to develop biofilms in vitro. Further studies need to be developed in other Staphylococcus spp. infections in order to confirm this hypothesis.

Objectives Detection of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales (CPEs) is sometimes difficult with AmpC-hyperproducing Enterobacterales (AHEs), as they may falsely be classified as CPEs. Here, we present a rapid Carbapenem Inactivation Method (rCIM) optimized for AmpC producers (rCIM-A) that allows rapid and easy discrimination between AHEs and CPEs. Methods Enterobacterales (n = 249), including natural AmpC producers, AHEs, CPEs and non-carbapenemase-producing carbapenem-resistant control strains were evaluated, using Carba NP, rCIM and rCIM-A. The rCIM-A differs from the rCIM by the addition of cloxacillin (400 μg/mL) to the initial antibiotic incubation step. Results The rCIM-A yielded a sensitivity and specificity of 84.26% (95% CI: 76.00%–90.55%) and 99.29% (95% CI: 96.11%–99.98%), respectively, while those of the rCIM were 86.11% (95% CI: 78.13%–92.01%) and 80.85% (95% CI: 73.38%–86.99%), respectively; those of Carba NP were lower at 84.04% (95% CI: 75.05%–90.78%) and 91.37% (95% CI: 85.41%–95.46%), respectively, due to indeterminate results. The rCIM-A was capable of discriminating between AHEs and true CPEs, but still failed to identify OXA-23-producing Proteus mirabilis isolates and remained only partially reliable for identifying IMI-like producers and a few MBL (2 NDM-1, 1 LMB-1, 1 TMB-1 and 1 IMP-13) producers. One chromosomally encoded AmpC variant, MIR-10, gave repeatedly positive results using all three tests and was thus considered a false positive. Conclusions Specificity for AHEs greatly improved with the rCIM-A without altering the test performance for the other resistance mechanisms. It may replace the rCIM as a cheap, easy, rapid and accurate CPE detection test.