Enterovirus (EV) 68 was originally isolated in California in 1962 from four children with respiratory illness. Since that time, reports of EV68 isolation have been very uncommon. Between 1989 and 2003, 12 additional EV68 clinical isolates were identified and characterized, all of which were obtained from respiratory specimens of patients with respiratory tract illnesses. No EV68 isolates from enteric specimens have been identified from these same laboratories. These recent isolates, as well as the original California strains and human rhinovirus (HRV) 87 (recently shown to be an isolate of EV68 and distinct from the other human rhinoviruses), were compared by partial nucleotide sequencing in three genomic regions (partial sequencing of the 59-non-translated region and 3D polymerase gene, and complete sequencing of the VP1 capsid gene). The EV68 isolates, including HRV87, were monophyletic in all three regions of the genome. EV68 isolates and HRV87 grew poorly at 37 6C relative to growth at 33 6C and their titres were reduced by incubation at pH 3?0, whereas the control enterovirus, echovirus 11, grew equally well at 33 and 37 6C and its titre was not affected by treatment at pH 3?0. Acid lability and a lower optimum growth temperature are characteristic features of the human rhinoviruses. It is concluded that EV68 is primarily an agent of respiratory disease and that it shares important biological and molecular properties with both the enteroviruses and the rhinoviruses.

The performance of the Becton Dickinson BDProbe Tec ET System Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae Amplified DNA Assays (BD Biosciences, Sparks, Md.) was evaluated in a multicenter study. Specimens were collected from 2,109 men and women, with or without symptoms, attending sexually transmitted disease, family planning, and obstetrics and gynecology clinics. Both swab and urine samples were collected, and the results obtained from 4,131 specimens were compared to those from culture and the LCx nucleic acid amplification test (Abbott Industries, Abbott Park, Ill.). PCR and cytospin of the culture transport medium with chlamydia direct fluorescent antibody staining were used to adjudicate chlamydia culture-negative results. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated both with and without use of the amplification control (AC), with little apparent difference in the results. Without the AC result, sensitivity for C. trachomatis and N. gonorrhoeae were 92.8 and 96.6%, respectively, for cervical swabs and 80.5 and 84.9% for urine from women. C. trachomatis and N. gonorrhoeae sensitivities were 92.5 and 98.5%, respectively, for male urethral swabs and 93.1 and 97.9% for urine from men. This amplified DNA system for simultaneous detection of chlamydial and gonococcal infections demonstrated superior sensitivity compared to chlamydia culture and has performance characteristics comparable to those of other commercially available nucleic acid-based assays for these organisms.

This patient had a prolonged nonspecific prodromal illness before developing respiratory symptoms. Both sera and sputum were rRT-PCR positive when nasopharyngeal specimens were negative. US clinicians must be vigilant for MERS-CoV in patients with febrile and/or respiratory illness with recent travel to the Arabian Peninsula, especially among healthcare workers.

We previously observed that Ureaplasma urealyticum respiratory tract colonization in infants with a birth weight of <1,250 g was associated with increases in the tracheal aspirate proinflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-␣) and interleukin-8 (

We investigated the application capabilities of a laser optical sensor, BARDOT (bacterial rapid detection using optical scatter technology) to generate differentiating scatter patterns for the 20 most frequently reported serovars of Salmonella enterica. Initially, the study tested the classification ability of BARDOT by using six Salmonella serovars grown on brain heart infusion, brilliant green, xylose lysine deoxycholate, and xylose lysine tergitol 4 (XLT4) agar plates. Highly accurate discrimination (95.9%) was obtained by using scatter signatures collected from colonies grown on XLT4. Further verification used a total of 36 serovars (the top 20 plus 16) comprising 123 strains with classification precision levels of 88 to 100%. The similarities between the optical phenotypes of strains analyzed by BARDOT were in general agreement with the genotypes analyzed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). BARDOT was evaluated for the real-time detection and identification of Salmonella colonies grown from inoculated (1.2 × 102 CFU/30 g) peanut butter, chicken breast, and spinach or from naturally contaminated meat. After a sequential enrichment in buffered peptone water and modified Rappaport Vassiliadis broth for 4 h each, followed by growth on XLT4 (~16 h), BARDOT detected S. Typhimurium with 84% accuracy in 24 h, returning results comparable to those of the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service method, which requires ~72 h. BARDOT also detected Salmonella (90 to 100% accuracy) in the presence of background microbiota from naturally contaminated meat, verified by 16S rRNA sequencing and PFGE. Prolonged residence (28 days) of Salmonella in peanut butter did not affect the bacterial ability to form colonies with consistent optical phenotypes. This study shows BARDOT’s potential for nondestructive and high-throughput detection of Salmonella in food samples.