The prevalence of extended-spectrum ␤-lactamase (ESBL)-mediated resistance remains unknown for most hospitals, and national guidelines for testing and reporting ESBL-mediated resistance have not yet been developed. We undertook a study to determine the prevalence of ESBLs and the clinical need for testing in our tertiary-care medical center. Members of the family Enterobacteriaceae isolated over a 6-month period for which ceftazidime or ceftriaxone MICs were greater than 1 g/ml were tested for production of ESBLs by the double-disk synergy method. Approximately 1.5% of isolates of the family Enterobacteriaceae (50 of 3,273), which were isolated from 1.2% of patients (23 of 1,844), were found to express ESBLs. ESBL-producing strains included eight different species and were isolated from patients located throughout the hospital, including outpatient clinics. By using the interpretive guidelines of the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards, 26 to 39% of the isolates would have been reported to be susceptible to ceftazidime, depending upon the routine susceptibility method used. However, tests with cefpodoxime found all of the ESBL-producing strains to be resistant or intermediate. Nine patients infected with ESBL-producing isolates were treated with therapy which included an expanded-spectrum cephalosporin. Seven were cured. The deaths of the other two patients were not attributed to bacterial resistance missed by routine susceptibility testing. These observations suggest that in our tertiary-care medical center, it may not be clinically necessary or cost-effective at this time to institute additional testing on a routine basis to detect ESBL production in all clinical isolates of the family Enterobacteriaceae.

Neurosyphilis continues to be a difficult diagnosis for clinicians. The decision to perform a lumbar puncture, interpretation of cerebrospinal fluid findings, clear diagnostic guidelines, establishment of definitive therapy (including alternatives to penicillins), and approach to the follow-up of patients with neurosyphilis are all areas that pose ongoing challenges to clinicians. Coinfection with HIV has also further complicated the already challenging arena of neurosyphilis presentation, diagnosis, and management. Clinicians must recognize the recent changes in the epidemiology of syphilis and know when to initiate appropriate screening. This article highlights the limitations and controversies related to neurosyphilis diagnosis and treatment, and current recommendations on management of patients with neurosyphilis, including those coinfected with HIV.

Background Acinetobacter baumannii is a nosocomial pathogen which is establishing as a major cause of morbidity and mortality within the healthcare community. The success of this pathogen is largely due to its ability to rapidly gain resistance to antimicrobial therapies and its capability to persist in an abiotic environment through the production of a biofilm. Our tertiary-care hospital has showed high incidence of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) isolates.MethodsIn this study we explore both genotypic and phenotypic properties of 26 CRAB isolates: 16 isolates were collected from January 2010 to March 2011, and 10 were collected between February and May 2015.ResultsWe determined that all 26 CRAB isolates possessed multiple β-lactamase genes, including genes from Groups A, C, and D. Specifically, 42% of the isolates possesses the potentially plasmid-borne genes of OXA-23-like or OXA-40-like β-lactamase. The presence of mobile gene element integron cassettes and/or integrases in 88% of the isolates suggests a possible mechanism of dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes. Additionally, the location of insertion sequence (IS) ISAba1 in promotor region of of the OXA-51-like, ADC-7, and ampC genes was confirmed. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) demonstrated that all 26 CRAB isolates were either sequence type (ST)-229 or ST-2. Interestingly, ST-2 went from being the minority CRAB strain in the 2010–2011 isolates to the predominant strain in the 2015 isolates (from 32 to 90%). We show that the ST-2 strains have an enhanced ability to produce biofilms in comparison to the ST-229 strains, and this fact has potentially led to more successful colonization of the clinical environment over time.ConclusionsThis study provides a longitudinal genetic and phenotypic survey of two CRAB sequence types, and suggests how their differing phenotypes may interact with the selective pressures of a hospital setting effecting strain dominance over a 5-year period.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12941-017-0248-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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