Objectives: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are a common reason for empirical treatment with broad-spectrum antibiotics worldwide. However, population-based antimicrobial resistance (AMR) prevalence data to inform empirical treatment choice are lacking in many regions, because of limited surveillance capacity. We aimed to assess the prevalence of AMR to commonly used antimicrobial drugs in Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae isolated from patients with community- or healthcare-associated UTIs on two islands of Indonesia. Methods: We performed a cross-sectional patient-based study in public and private hospitals and clinics between April 2014 and May 2015. We screened patients for symptoms of UTIs and through urine dipstick analysis. Urine culture and susceptibility testing were supported by telemicrobiology and interactive virtual laboratory rounds. Surveillance data were entered in forms on mobile phones. Results: Of 3424 eligible patients, 3380 (98.7%) were included in the final analysis, and yielded 840 positive cultures and antimicrobial susceptibility data for 657 E. coli and K. pneumoniae isolates. Fosfomycin was the single oral treatment option with resistance prevalence <20% in both E. coli and K. pneumoniae in community settings. Tigecycline and fosfomycin were the only options for treatment of catheter-associated UTIs with resistance prevalence <20%, whilst the prevalence of resistance to meropenem was 21.3% in K. pneumoniae. Conclusions: Patient-based surveillance of AMR in E. coli and K. pneumoniae causing UTIs indicates that resistance to the commonly available empirical treatment options is high in Indonesia. Smart AMR surveillance strategies are needed to inform policy makers and to guide interventions.

Clostridioides (Clostridium) difficile infections (CDI) are considered worldwide as emerging health threat. Uptake of C. difficile spores may result in asymptomatic carrier status or lead to CDI that could range from mild diarrhea, eventually developing into pseudomembranous colitis up to a toxic megacolon that often results in high mortality. Most epidemiological studies to date have been performed in middle- and high income countries. Beside others, the use of antibiotics and the composition of the microbiome have been identified as major risk factors for the development of CDI. We therefore postulate that prevalence rates of CDI and the distribution of C. difficile strains differ between geographical regions depending on the regional use of antibiotics and food habits. A total of 593 healthy control individuals and 608 patients suffering from diarrhea in communities in Germany, Ghana, Tanzania and Indonesia were selected for a comparative multi-center cross-sectional study. The study populations were screened for the presence of C. difficile in stool samples. Cultured C. difficile strains (n = 84) were further subtyped and characterized using PCR-ribotyping, determination of toxin production, and antibiotic susceptibility testing. Prevalence rates of C. difficile varied widely between the countries. Whereas high prevalence rates were observed in symptomatic patients living in Germany and Indonesia (24.0 and 14.7%), patients from Ghana and Tanzania showed low detection rates (4.5 and 6.4%). Differences were also obvious for ribotype distribution and toxin repertoires. Toxin A+/B+ ribotypes 001/072 and 078 predominated in Germany, whereas most strains isolated from Indonesian patients belonged to toxin A+/B+ ribotype SLO160 and toxin A-/B+ ribotype 017. With 42.9–73.3%, non-toxigenic strains were most abundant in Africa, but were also found in Indonesia at a rate of 18.2%. All isolates were susceptible to vancomycin and metronidazole. Mirroring the antibiotic use, however, moxifloxacin resistance was absent in African C. difficile isolates but present in Indonesian (24.2%) and German ones (65.5%). This study showed that CDI is a global health threat with geographically different prevalence rates which might reflect distinct use of antibiotics. Significant differences for distributions of ribotypes, toxin production, and antibiotic susceptibilities were observed.

Surveillance of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) enables monitoring of trends in AMR prevalence. WHO recommends laboratory-based surveillance to obtain actionable AMR data at local or national level. However, laboratory-based surveillance may lead to overestimation of the prevalence of AMR due to bias. The objective of this study is to assess the difference in resistance prevalence between laboratory-based and population-based surveillance (PBS) among uropathogens in Indonesia. We included all urine samples submitted to the laboratory growing Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae in the laboratory-based surveillance. Population-based surveillance data were collected in a cross-sectional survey of AMR in E. coli and K. pneumoniae isolated from urine samples among consecutive patients with symptoms of UTI, attending outpatient clinics and hospital wards. Data were collected between 1 April 2014 until 31 May 2015. The difference in percentage resistance (95% confidence intervals) between laboratory-and population-based surveillance was calculated for relevant antibiotics. A difference larger than +/-5 percent points was defined as a biased result, precluding laboratory-based surveillance for guiding empirical treatment. We observed high prevalence of AMR ranging between 63.1% (piperacillin-tazobactam) and 85% (ceftriaxone) in laboratory-based surveillance and 41.3% (piperacillin-tazobactam) and 74.2% (ceftriaxone) in population-based surveillance, except for amikacin and meropenem (5.7%/9.8%; 10.8%/5.9%; [laboratory-/population-based surveillance], respectively). Laboratory-based surveillance yielded significantly higher AMR prevalence estimates than population-based surveillance. This difference was much larger when comparing surveillance data from outpatients than from inpatients. All point estimates of the difference between the two surveillance systems were larger than 5 percent points, except for amikacin and a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111

Clostridioides difficile, a Gram-positive spore-forming bacterium, is the leading cause of nosocomial diarrhea worldwide and therefore a substantial burden to the healthcare system. During the past decade, hypervirulent PCR-ribotypes (RT) e.g., RT027 or RT176 emerged rapidly all over the world, associated with both, increased severity and mortality rates. It is thus of great importance to identify epidemic strains such as RT027 and RT176 as fast as possible. While commonly used diagnostic methods, e.g., multilocus sequence typing (MLST) or PCR-ribotyping, are time-consuming, proteotyping offers a fast, inexpensive, and reliable alternative solution. In this study, we established a MALDI-TOF-based typing scheme for C. difficile. A total of 109 ribotyped strains representative for five MLST clades were analyzed by MALDI-TOF. MLST, based on whole genome sequences, and PCR-ribotyping were used as reference methods. Isoforms of MS-detectable biomarkers, typically ribosomal proteins, were related with the deduced amino acid sequences and added to the C. difficile proteotyping scheme. In total, we were able to associate nine biomarkers with their encoding genes and include them in our proteotyping scheme. The discriminatory capacity of the C. difficile proteotyping scheme was mainly based on isoforms of L28-M (2 main isoforms), L35-M (4 main isoforms), and S20-M (2 main isoforms) giving rise to at least 16 proteotyping-derived types. In our test population, five of these 16 proteotyping-derived types were detected. These five proteotyping-derived types did not correspond exactly to the included five MLST-based C. difficile clades, nevertheless the subtyping depth of both methods was equivalent. Most importantly, proteotyping-derived clade B contained only isolates of the hypervirulent RT027 and RT176. Proteotyping is a stable and easy-to-perform intraspecies typing method and a promising alternative to currently used molecular techniques. It is possible to distinguish the group of RT027 and RT176 isolates from non-RT027/non-RT176 isolates using proteotyping, providing a valuable diagnostic tool.

Introduction. Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is a major public health problem globally, including in Indonesia. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) analysis has rarely been used for the study of TB and MDR-TB in Indonesia.Aim. We evaluated the use of WGS for drug-susceptibility testing (DST) and to investigate the population structure of drugresistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Java, Indonesia.Methodology. Thirty suspected MDR-TB isolates were subjected to MGIT 960 system (MGIT)-based DST and to WGS. Phylogenetic analysis was done using the WGS data. Results obtained using MGIT-based DST and WGS-based DST were compared.Results. Agreement between WGS and MGIT was 93.33 % for rifampicin, 83.33 % for isoniazid and 76.67 % for streptomycin but only 63.33 % for ethambutol. Moderate WGS-MGIT agreement was found for second-line drugs including amikacin, kanamycin and fluoroquinolone (73.33-76.67 %). MDR-TB was more common in isolates of the East Asian Lineage (63.3%). No evidence of clonal transmission of DR-TB was found among members of the tested population.Conclusion. Our study demonstrated the applicability of WGS for DST and molecular epidemiology of DR-TB in Java, Indonesia. We found no transmission of DR-TB in Indonesia.