Objectives: To assess the epidemiological features of 76 KPC producing K. pneumoniae isolates (KPC-Kp) recovered in 3 hospitals of Buenos Aires, Argentina, during 2015-2017. Methods: Antimicrobial susceptibilities were determined according to CLSI. Molecular typing of KPC-Kp was performed by PFGE-XbaI and MLST. Plasmid encoded genes involved in carbapenem, fosfomycin and colistin resistance were detected by PCR and sequencing. Also mgrB inactivation was investigated in those colistin resistance isolates. Genetic platforms involved in horizontal spread of bla KPC were investigated by PCR mapping.Results: Besides β-lactams, high resistance rates were observed for gentamycin, quinolones and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. KPC-Kp ST258 corresponded to

There has been a decline in the total number of cases of neonatal conjunctivitis, but the disease is still an important health problem. Chlamydia trachomatis also shows a decreasing profile with an incidence of (cases per 1000 live births) 4.39 in 1995, 1.85 in 1996, 1.01 in 1997, and 0.78 in 1998, and a tendency to show more incidence in spring-summer and significant accumulation of cases in babies between 7 and 9 days of age. Haemophilus influenzae alone (12.3%) or associated with S. pneumoniae (4.5%) appears as a prevalent potential bacterial pathogen. A significant accumulation of H. influenzae and S. pneumoniae cases occurs in winter. In 47.6% of cases, there was no bacterial growth. No significant seasonal differences in percentage of negative cultures or among the three-day age groups were detected. Neisseria gonorrhoeae was not found associated with ophthalmia neonatorum in this series.

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Ten IMP-8-producing isolates were recovered from surveillance cultures of a neonatal intensive care unit; eight of the isolates were clonally related. A 168.2-kb plasmid was fully sequenced, and it corresponded to the recently described IncA/C1-ST13 plasmid. This plasmid was detected in all isolates, even in those that were not clonally related. One unrelated isolate was also resistant to colistin and positive for This marker was located in a 62.7-kb IncI2 plasmid, which was also fully sequenced.

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Background: Candida parapsilosis sensu stricto had emerged as major nosocomial pathogens, being the second most frequently isolated yeast after C. albicans from candidemia. Our aim was to analyze the virulence and the response to antifungal agents, of the species C. parapsilosis sensu stricto from blood cultures of Argentinean patients with candidemia and to know how this environment impact in virulence Methods & Materials: A basic and retrospective study was designed for 75 cryopreserved isolates, 25 from blood, 28 from buccal cavity and 22 from skin. First they were identified based on color in chromogenic medium, micro-morphology in 1% milk agar-Tween 80, and Vitek2 (BioMérieux, Francia) systems. The molecular characterization was made by PCR with specific primers and Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) was determined for each antifungal agent on the study strains using CLSI M27-A3. Biomass biofilm quantification was studied through crystal violet on two culture media YPD and RPMI 1640 using well microtiter plates. Isolates were categorized as high (≥0.41OD), low (0.11-0.40 OD) or non-producers (≤0.10 OD). The InfoStat 2016 statistical software was used for statistical calculation, considering a p value lower than alpha error (alpha = < 0.05) significant.Results: Out of the 75 isolates of the C. parapsilosis complex were reconfirmed to be C. parapsilosis sensu stricto. 20 strains derived from blood (80%) were sensitive to fluconazole, 100% to voriconazole, (96%) to Caspofungin. and 100% of the strains were wild type to amphotericin.In the biofilm biomass assay, higher absorbance levels were reached with YPD medium (p≤0.05). 96% (24/25) of the blood, 82.1% (23/28) buccal and 72.7% (16/22) skin yeasts were high biofilm producers. Isolates from blood environment are likely to be more virulent than those isolated in buccal and skin conditions (Wilcoxon test p≤0.05).Conclusion: Biofilm-forming capacity of the C. parapsilosis sensu stricto species depends on the strain. However, conditions in the environment may affect or determine this species virulence potential. YPD medium is more effective and less expensive than RPMI to stimulate biofilm growth at 24 hours. Both, buccal and the skin contain highly biofilm-producing strains, both of which can be routes of infection related to health care.