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Background: Helicobacter pylori is a bacterium associated with gastroduodenal disease and gastric cancer. Empirical therapy in the treatment of H. pylori infection increases the risk of apparition of antimicrobial drug resistance. In a previous report, in H. pylori clinical isolates, resistance rates to commonly used antimicrobial drugs were as follows: metronidazole 82%, clarithromycin 3.8%, and amoxicillin 1.9%. The aim was to establish the variation of resistance rates and the detection of H. pylori genetic mutations isolated from dyspeptic patients. Methods: Antimicrobial susceptibility profiles were performed by the E-test method for metronidazole, clarithromycin, amoxicillin, and tetracycline in 61 clini-cal isolates. Sequencing was performed to detect mutations associated with resistance to clarithromycin. Results: According to our results, resistance rates found in the 61 isolates were 78.60% for metronidazole and 8.20% for clarithromycin. None of the studied isolates had resistance to tetracycline and amoxicillin. Secondary resistance rates displayed an increase when compared to primary rates for metronidazole (87.50 vs. 77.35%) and for clarithromycin (25.66 vs. 5.66%). Of 5 isolates resistant to clarithromycin, 3 had the A2143G mutation. By comparing the results in this work with previous reports, antimicrobial drug resistance rates did not show major modifications for metronidazole, amoxicillin, and tetracycline during the last 10 years. For clarithromycin, the resistance rate showed a moderate increase; nevertheless, it remains low (< 15%) and this change was not statistically significant. Conclusion: Together, all findings in this work indicate that these antimicrobial drugs can still be used as first line of defense on infected patients living in this region of the country.

Objective: evaluate the cleaning and disinfection procedures (CDP) in six ambulances from three different entities in Pereira (Risaralda-Colombia). Methods: cross-sectional descriptive study frequencies of presence/absence were calculated from data obtained in the bacterial growth results before and after CDP, taking samples in three different places on the ambulances, being: back door, stretcher and wall next to the patient, before and after said processes. Additionally, surveys were carried out at the domicile of companies providing pre-hospital transport service. Results: 77.8% of the samples were positive. The most frequent morphology in the study was gram-positive cocci, which remained in a greater proportion after disinfection. At the microbiologic level, most of these suggested being Staphylococcus aureus-type. By implementing CDP, microbiological isolates were eliminated in 33.3%, being the door the ambulance area, which showed the greatest decrease (50.0%). Conclusions: A high prevalence of potentially pathogenic microorganisms exists in non-critical points of emergency ambulances. With CDPs, a decrease in microorganisms is achieved, but not their elimination, leaving in evidence that different factors must be considered in order to improve these CDP.

Introduction: Staphylococcus aureus is a pathogen that causes food poisoning as well as hospital and community acquired infections. Objective: Establish the profile of superantigen genes among hospital isolates in relation to clinical specimen type, susceptibility to antibiotics and hospital or community acquisition. Methods: Eighty one isolates obtained from patients at Colombian hospital, were classified by antimicrobial susceptibility, specimen type and hospital or community acquired . The PCR uniplex and multiplex was used for detection of 22 superantigen genes (18 enterotoxins, tsst-1 and three exfoliative toxins). Results: Ninety five point one percent of isolates harbored one or more of the genes with an average of 5.6 genes. Prevalence of individual genes was variable and the most prevalent was seg (51.9%). 39 genotypes were obtained, and the genotype gimnou (complete egc cluster) was the most prevalent alone (16.0%) and in association with other genes (13.6%). The correlation between presence of superantigens and clinical specimen or antimicrobial susceptibility showed no significant difference. But there was significant difference between presence of superantigens and the origin of the isolates, hospital or community acquired (p= 0.049). Conclusions: The results show the variability of the superantigen genes profile in hospital isolates and shows no conclusive relationship with the clinical sample type and antimicrobial susceptibility, but there was correlation with community and hospital isolates. The analysis of the interplay between virulence, epidemic and antibiotic resistance of bacterial populations is needed to predict the future of infectious diseases.