Fungi are a versatile group of microorganisms which can be freely present in the environment, be a part of the normal flora of human and animals and have the ability to cause mild superficial infections to severe life threatening invasive infections. Invasive fungal infections (IFI's) are those infections where fungi have invaded in to the deep tissues and have established themselves resulting in prolonged illness. IFI's usually are seen in debilitated and immunosuppressed individuals. There are many reports of IFI's even in immunocompetent individuals thus making IFI's a potential threat in the present century. Fungi are saprophytic microorganisms which have evolved mechanisms to survive in the mammalian hosts. Most of the fungal infections have been accidental and systemic fungal infections are a rarity that may result in high mortality. In systemic fungal infections the outcome of the disease depends more on the host factors rather than the fungal virulence. Immune response to fungal infections is a complex subject where in fungi invading goes unrecognised by the immune system and that invasive fungal infections can result in severe inflammatory reactions resulting in morbidity and mortality. From being uncommon during the earlier part of the 20 th century when the world was plagued with bacterial epidemics, fungi have evolved as a major global health problem.

Lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI's) are amongst the most common causes of morbidity and mortality arising from infectious diseases both in the developed and developing nations. Prompt clinical and laboratory diagnosis along with appropriate treatment strategies would be helpful in the management of both community and nosocomially acquired LRTI's. The present study was aimed at evaluating the aetiology and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of LRTI's in a tertiary care teaching hospital in south India. The results revealed that among the samples tested 56 (52.83%) were positive for various bacteria, 6 (5.6%) were showing the growth of fungi and 44 (41.5%) were revealing no pathogens. Klebsiella pneumoniae (45.1%) was the predominant Gram negative bacterial pathogen isolated followed by Citrobacter freundii (12.9%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (9.6%), Staphylococcus aureus (9.6%) was the significant Gram positive bacterial pathogen followed by Streptococcus pneumoniae (5.6%). The antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of the isolated bacteria indicated the presence of multidrug resistance, Extended spectrum beta lactamases (ESBL) (75%) and metallobetalactamases/carbapenemases (MBL) (25%) among the Gram negative bacterial isolates whereas MRSA (16.6%) and VRSA (16%) among the Gram positive bacterial isolates. With varied geographical prevalence, and different antimicrobial susceptibility patterns, it becomes imperative to regularly evaluate the aetiology and antibiotic profiles of LRTI's and formulate regional guidelines that guide clinical, laboratory diagnosis and management of patients suffering from LRTI's.

The occurrence of dipterous fly larvae in human is termed as human myiasis. Human myiasis can be classified based on clinical condition it causes like cutaneous myiasis, ocular myiasis, urogenital myiasis and intestinal myiasis. Based on the need for a particular host, myiasis can be divided as specific myiasis, semi-specific myiasis. Accidental myiasis results when the fly larvae are deposited/ingested by human resulting in infestation, which is also called as pseudomyiasis. Fly larvae may be present on the dead and decaying organic matter and domestic animals like dog and cats which are naturally infested with fly larvae and can be source for infection in children. Very few cases have been retrieved from literature on the occurrence of intestinal myiasis in children throughout the world. We report a case of two siblings in the same family infested with dipterous fly larvae.

Aerobic, Gram positive, catalase positive and non-spore forming bacilli, which are morphologically similar to Corynebacterium diphtheriae are described as either diphtheroids or coryneform bacteria, resembling C diphtheriae. Corynebacteria are a group of bacteria placed under the family corynebacteriaceae, which come under the phylum, Actinobacteria. Among the members of genus Corynebacterium, only C diphtheriae is considered as a pathogen but other species are present either as normal flora in human or as saprophytes in the environment and have rarely been associated with human infections. Of late, there have been increased reports of both new species of genus Corynebacterium and their occurrence in various human infections. It is now imperative that clinical microbiologists and clinicians understand the potential role of NDC in human infections. Only few studies globally have characterized the human clinical isolates of NDC and their antimicrobial susceptibility patterns. This review tries toexamine? the potential pathogenic nature of NDC, which warrants their identification and prompt reporting when isolated from human clinical specimens.

IntroductionThe Diphyllobothrium genus belongs to the Diphyllobothridea order of tapeworms. Diphyllobothrium spp., which is commonly known as fish tapeworm, is generally transmitted in humans, but also in other species, such as bears, dogs, cats, foxes, and other terrestrial carnivores. Although worldwide in distribution, the original heartland of Diphyllobothrium spp. spreads across Scandinavia, northern Russia, and western Serbia. We report a rare case that occurred in India.Case presentationA nine-year-old south Indian girl was brought to the casualty at the Prathima Institute of Medical Sciences with complaints of vomiting and loose stools that had started three days earlier. The vomit did not have a foul smell and contained no blood or mucus, but it did contain undigested food particles. The patient described a history of recurrent abdominal pain. She was a non-vegetarian and said she had a history of eating fish.ConclusionThe incidence of Diphyllobothrium spp. infection is infrequent in India. Since this is only the fourth reported case in India, and since the previously reported cases also involved observed pediatric patients, we emphasize the need for clinical microbiologists and pediatricians to suspect fish tapeworm infection and recommend epidemiological study of Diphyllobothrium spp. infection.