Background:Most outbreaks of viral hepatitis in India are caused by hepatitis E. Recently in the year 2009, Modasa town of Sabarkantha district in Gujarat witnessed the outbreak of hepatitis B.Purpose:An attempt was made to study the outbreak clinically and serologically, to estimate the seropositivity of hepatitis B Virus among the cases and their contacts and to know the seroprevalence of hepatitis B envelope antigen (HBeAg) and IgM antibody against hepatitis B core antigen (IgM HBcAb) out of all the Hepatitis B surface Antigen (HBsAg) positive ones.Materials and Methods:Eight hundred and fifty-six (856) cases and 1145 contacts were evaluated for hepatitis B markers namely HBsAg, HBeAg and IgM HBcAb by enzyme-linked immuno Sorbent Assay (ELISA) test.Results:This outbreak of viral hepatitis B in Modasa, Gujarat was most likely due to unsafe injection practices. Evidence in support of this was collected by Government authorities. Most of the patients and approximately 40% of the surveyed population gave history of injections in last 1.5–6 months. Total 664/856 (77.57%) cases and 20/1145 (1.75%) contacts were found to be positive for HBsAg. 53.41% of the positive cases and 52.93% of the positive contacts were HBeAg-positive and thus in a highly infectious stage.Conclusions:Inadequately sterilized needles and syringes are an important cause of transmission of hepatitis B in India. Our data reflects the high positivity rate of a hepatitis B outbreak due to such unethical practices. There is a need to strengthen the routine surveillance system, and to organise a health education campaign targeting all health care workers including private practitioners, especially those working in rural areas, as well as the public at large, to take all possible measures to prevent this often fatal infection.

Although trends in PCT concentrations may offer insight, no standard approach can be recommended currently.

Introduction:Resistance to higher antimicrobial agent is commonly seen in gram negative bacilli. This issue is a challenging problem to the medical practitioners in addition to it is financial impact on the health care system.Objectives:To document the prevalence of multi drug resistant gram negative bacilli isolated from urine of patients attending the Urology Department of Tertiary care Hospital of western India in year 2008.Results:Out of total 328 isolates, 118 (35.98%) E.coli, 72 (21.95 %) Klebsiella, 64 (19.51%) Pseudomonas aeruginosa, 30 (9.15%) Acinetobacter, 18 (5.49%) Proteus vulgaris, 18 (5.49%) Proteus mirabilis, 6 (1.83%) Providencia rettgerii, 2 (0.61%) Citrobacter freundii. Out of these isolates, 228 (69.51%) were β-lactamase positive, while 100 (30.51%) were β-lactamase negative. Out of 228 β-lactamase positive, 104 (45.61%) were AmpC β-lactamase positive.Conclusions:Stringent protocol such as Antibiotic policy and Hospital infection control program are mandatory to curb these microbes in a tertiary care hospital.

Acinetobacter baumannii is a problematic pathogen due to its common expression of extensive drug resistance (XDR) and ability to survive in the healthcare environment. These characteristics are mediated, in part, by the signal transduction system BfmR/BfmS. We previously demonstrated, in antimicrobial sensitive clinical isolates, that BfmR conferred increased resistance to meropenem and polymyxin E. In this study, potential mechanisms were informed, in part, by a prior transcriptome analysis of the antimicrobial sensitive isolate AB307-0294, which identified the porins OprB and aquaporin (Omp33-36, MapA) as plausible mediators for resistance to hydrophilic antimicrobials such as meropenem. Studies were then performed in the XDR isolate HUMC1, since delineating resistance mechanisms in this genomic background would be more translationally relevant. In HUMC1 BfmR likewise increased meropenem and polymyxin E resistance and upregulated gene expression of OprB and aquaporin. However, the comparison of HUMC1 with isogenic mutant constructs demonstrated that neither OprB nor aquaporin affected meropenem resistance; polymyxin E susceptibility was also unaffected. Next, we determined whether BfmR-mediated biofilm production affected either meropenem or polymyxin E susceptibilities. Interestingly, biofilm formation increased resistance to polymyxin E, but had little, if any effect on meropenem activity. Additionally, BfmR mediated meropenem resistance, and perhaps polymyxin E resistance, was due to BfmR regulated factors that do not affect biofilm formation. These findings increase our understanding of the mechanisms by which BfmR mediates intrinsic antimicrobial resistance in a clinically relevant XDR isolate and suggest that the efficacy of different classes of antimicrobials may vary under biofilm inducing conditions.