Introduction: Generally considered to be part of the environmental flora, Chryseobacterium spp. have been reported to cause infection in humans, albeit rarely. The clinical significance of these organisms remains to be fully established, despite being isolated from patients, especially neonates, and immunocompromised subjects. Case presentation: We present a study of 10 isolates of Chryseobacterium spp. cultured from blood and endotracheal secretions of neonates in two hospitals, Farwaniya Hospital (FH) and Maternity Hospital (MH), Kuwait, identified using the Phoenix or Vitek 2 system from April to November 2012. The clinical features of the patients were assessed, and antimicrobial susceptibilities of the isolates were performed by disk diffusion test and Etest. Molecular identification of bacteria was done by 16S rRNA gene sequencing and fingerprinting by random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD). Patients suffered from sepsis, pneumonia or other clinical conditions. Two strains of Chryseobacterium indologenes and eight strains of Chryseobacterium meningosepticum (now Elizabethkingia meningosepticum) were cultured from clinical samples from FH and MH, respectively. Both C. indologenes and six of the C. meningosepticum strains were isolated from endotracheal secretions, and two of the latter were from blood. Identification of isolates was confirmed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. All isolates were multidrug resistant and eight were metallo-b-lactamase positive. Five patterns of Chryseobacterium spp. were identified by RAPD. Conclusion: It appears that Chryseobacterium spp. are emerging pathogens for neonates in Kuwait, causing serious systemic infections.

Objective: Establishing a pediatric COVID-19 registry in Kuwait (PCR-Q8) deemed imperative during the pandemic to study children infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) focusing on mode of presentation, therapeutic interventions, disease severity and early outcomes. This manuscript describes the rapid establishment of the PCR-Q8 registry showcasing an infrastructure of the development process and presents the results of the pilot phase. Subject and methods: The registry was developed and implemented using the general key steps from Gliklich et al. resource titled “Registries for Evaluating Patient Outcomes: A User’s Guide” as a guide for best practice, experience from a previously established pediatric diabetes registry in Kuwait and several other COVID-19 registries developed globally. During the pilot phase, a convenience sample of 120 children were included, of those 66 (55%) were male. Results: Experience and expertise from other COVID-19 registries, guidance provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) and effective collaboration and cooperation between the stakeholders, study group and data enterers during these challenging times were critical for the development and implementation of the registry. Our results were similar to international reports where most children presented with mild disease (69.2%), majority (70.2%) had normal chest X-ray, and the most common symptom at presentation was fever (77%). Conclusion: We anticipate the PCR-Q8 development to be a steppingstone for more in-depth investigation of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children in Kuwait and further other registry establishments.