The genus Legionella is a fastidious Gram-negative bacteria widely distributed in natural waters and man made water supply systems. Legionella pneumophila is the aetiological agent of approximately 90% of reported Legionellosis cases, and serogroup 1 is the most frequent cause of infections. Legionnaires' disease is often associated with travel and continues to be a public health concern at present. The correct water management quality practices and rapid methods for analyzing Legionella species in environmental water is a key point for the prevention of Legionnaires' disease outbreaks. This study aimed to evaluate the positivity rates and serotyping of Legionella species from water samples in the region of Antalya, Turkey, which is an important tourism center. During January-December 2010, a total of 1403 samples of water that were collected from various hotels (n = 56) located in Antalya were investigated for Legionella pneumophila. All samples were screened for L. pneumophila by culture method according to "ISO 11731-2" criteria. The culture positive Legionella strains were serologically identified by latex agglutination test. A total of 142 Legionella pneumophila isolates were recovered from 21 (37.5%) of 56 hotels. The total frequency of L. pneumophila isolation from water samples was found as 10.1%. Serological typing of 142 Legionella isolates by latex agglutination test revealed that strains belonging to L. pneumophila serogroups 2-14 predominated in the examined samples (85%), while strains of L. pneumophila serogroup 1 were less numerous (15%). According to our knowledge, our study with the greatest number of water samples from Turkey demonstrates that L. pneumophila serogroups 2-14 is the most common isolate. Rapid isolation of L. pneumophila from environmental water samples is essential for the investigation of travel related outbreaks and the possible resources. Further studies are needed to have epidemiological data and to determine the types of L. pneumophila isolates from Turkey.

Sexually transmitted diseases may occur more frequently in sexually active asymptomatic renal transplant recipients than in nontransplanted individuals. Real-time multiplex polymerase chain reaction analysis may be a suitable method for determining these pathogens.

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Abstract:The use of carbapenems to eradicate multi-drug resistant (MDR) Acinetobacter baumannii may become compromised by the spread of carbapenem-hydrolyzing class D -lactamase (CHDL) genes . Here, we describe the phenotypical and genotypical characterization of MDR A. baumannii isolates, recovered between June and November 2003 in a tertiary-care hospital in Antalya, Turkey.Hundred and sixteen MDR A. baumannii isolates were isolated from 23 patients, mostly from respiratory samples and from 11 environmental samples. These MDR isolates, belonged to a single clone and remained susceptible to colistin and rifampin only. They produced CHDL OXA-58. In addition, they were also positive for the bla OXA-51 , for a novel bla AMPC (ADC-43) gene and for ISAba1. The bla OXA-58 gene was located onto a non self-transferable 50-kb plasmid that could be electroporated to A. baumannii 7010 reference strain. One isogenic carbapenem-susceptible strain lost its plasmid carrying bla OXA-58 gene. PCR mapping identified similar genetic structures surrounding the bla OXA-58 gene as for the prototype bla OXA-58 gene, e.g. two ISAba3-like insertion sequences bracketing bla OXA-58 gene. This is the first molecular description of an outbreak of OXA-58-producing A. baumannii isolates in Turkey, further underlining the global spread of such carbapenemase-producing strains in the Mediterranean area.