Background and Objectives: The study was sought to detect the effect of Listeria monocytogenes on pregnant Iraqi women at Al-Diwaniya hospitals and determination of virulence genes and antimicrobial susceptibility of isolates. Materials and Methods: 360 specimens including blood, urine, vaginal and endocervical were collected from 90 patients with spontaneous abortions. Blood samples were displayed to immunological study and remaining specimens were subjected to bacteriological diagnosis. PCR was used to determine the virulence factors and antimicrobial resistance genes. Results: Fifteen positive samples (16.6%) of patients and thirteen isolates (14.5%) from patients were recognized based on ELISA and PCR assay respectively. The general isolation of L. monocytogenes strains in cases of abortive women was 13/270 (4.8%). L. monocytogenes strains were highly virulent because of presence of virulence factors associated genes, namely actA, hlyA, plcA and prfA in all strains. Multiple drug resistance (MAR) index values of 15.4% of isolates were >0.2. Conclusion: It is necessary for conducting susceptibility testing and to select the suitable antibiotics and avoid the effects of these bacteria in pregnant women.

The present study aimed at investigating the spread of serine carbapenemase-producing isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa recovered from some hospitals and specialized health centers in Al-Diwaniyah City, Iraq. Using morphological and molecular methods, 630 clinical samples (244 burn swabs, 163 sputa, 115 urine samples, and 108 ear swabs) were tested. The current work also explored the carbapenemase production ability of the carbapenemresistant (CR) isolates using morphological and molecular methods. A monoplex polymerase chain reaction (MPCR) technique targeting 4 different serine carbapenemase (SCMs) coding genes was followed. The study also explored the nucleotide sequences of the SCM genes. The API 20 E and Vitek 2 system showed that 100 of the isolates belonged to P. aeruginosa. With different severity of resistance by percentages of isolates to various antibiotics, only 24% of the isolates displayed resistance against carbapenem. The results of the SCM-related MPCR showed the occurrence of the bla GES , bla sMe , bla KPC , and bla OXA-48 genes in 20 (83.3%), 19 (79.1%), 11 (45.8%), 18 (75%), respectively, of the isolates. The phylogenetic study analysis revealed high, 99%, identity with NCBI-related world strains. According to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study in Iraq that detects a group of encoding genes of serine carbapenemase in carbapenem-resistant isolates.

Antibiotic resistance in bacteria has become a worrying phenomenon in today's world,    K. pneumoniae is a member of the Enterobacteriaceae family, which causes nosocomial infections as  an opportunistic pathogen but inherently harbored as a part of the natural human microbiota this study aims to inform the sensitivity of bacteria to different antibiotics commonly used in the treatment against K. pneumoniae strains isolated from different infection sites and hospital environmental samples. Samples were collected from different sources (n = 886) were recorded from Diwaniyah hospitals during the period from August 2019 to January 2020, Among the 275 isolates positive for bacterial culture, only 70 isolates (40%) were identified as K.pneumoniae by standard  microbiological techniques and antibiotic susceptibility testing was done by Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion testing to 29 antibiotics using the tablet diffusion method according to CLSI 2020,  The results susceptibility testing showed that frequency resistance of K. pneumoniae isolates to Pipercillin and Amoxicillin/ clavulanic acid was (100 %), Cefuroxime )97.14%) Cefoxitin (50%), Cefotaxime (74.28%), ceftriaxone (84.28%), aztreonam (52.85%), ceftazidime (81.42%), Tetracycline (70%), Nitrofurantoin (61.42%), Amikacin (57.14%), ciprofloxacin (50%). Also, the results showed the highest frequency of susceptibility            among  K.pneumoniae was associated withOfloxacin(78.57%), Netilmicin(74.28%), Gentamicin(75.71%), Meropenem(68.57%), Trimethoprim-Sulfamethoxazole(64.28%),  Levofloxacin(72.85%).

No abstract