Background
Carbapenem resistance is endemic in the Indian sub-continent. In this study, carbapenem resistance rates and the prevalence of different carbapenemases were determined in Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa during two periods; Pre-COVID (August to October 2019) and COVID (January to February 2021) in a north-Indian tertiary care hospital.
Methods
Details of patient demographics and clinical condition was collated from the Hospital Information System and detection of carbapenemases NDM, OXA-48, VIM, IMP and KPC was done by Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in 152 and 138 non-consecutive carbapenem resistant isolates during the two study periods respectively. Conjugation assay and sequencing of NDM and OXA-48 gene was done on a few selected isolates.
Results
As compared to Pre-COVID period, co-morbidities and the mortality rates were higher in patients harbouring carbapenem resistant organisms during the COVID period. The overall carbapenem resistance rate for all the four organisms increased from 23 to 41% between the two periods of study; with Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae showing significant increase (p < 0.05). OXA-48, NDM and co-expression of NDM and OXA-48 were the most common genotypes detected. NDM-5 and OXA-232 were most common variants of NDM and OXA-48 family respectively during both the study periods.
Conclusion
Higher rate of carbapenem resistance in COVID times could be attributed to increase in number of patients with co-morbidities. However, genetic elements of carbapenem resistance largely remained the same in the two time periods.
The study group consisted of 100 women of reproductive age having symptomatic vaginal discharge, vulval purities or lower abdominal pain. High vaginal swabs were collected from each and processed by Gram Staining, culture on Sabroud's dextrose agar & CHROM agar. Antifungal susceptibility was performed by disc diffusion method as per CLSI guidelines. Results: Vulvovaginal candidiasis accounted for 22 % of cases. Species distribution is as follows: C.albicans 12, C tropicalis 7, C krusei 2, C glabrata 1. Senstivity to Voriconazole was 91.6% for C albicans,
To evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of C-Reactive protein as a single diagnostic inflammatory biomarker of neonatal sepsis in association with the blood culture.In this study, we retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 330 neonates at a tertiary care hospital at Gurugram from Jan, 2015 to Dec, 2020. The study population included neonates <1month age. Neonates meeting the IPSC criteria (Sepsis 2.0)1 and with a positive culture were considered as neonates with proven sepsis. Neonates with congenital malformations and congenital infections associated with TORCH complex were excluded from the study.Of the 330 neonates screened for sepsis, 32 (10%) had a positive blood culture with raised CRP in 69 (21%) cases. Among the 32 cases with positive blood culture, CRP identified 29 cases. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive values of CRP were 90.6%, 86.5%, 42% and 99% respectively. The area under the curve (AUC) for the CRP ROC analysis was 0.83 with sensitivity of 90.6% and specificity of 91.6% which showed CRP usefulness as the diagnostic inflammatory biomarker of neonatal sepsis.Prematurity (53%) in neonates was the most common risk factor associated with neonatal sepsis. Klebsiella pneumoniae 11 (34%) was the most common pathogen isolated with 73% susceptibility to Ciprofloxacin.C-Reactive protein was found to have a high diagnostic value in terms of sensitivity of 90.6% and specificity of 91.6% when 0.83 is used as a cut off point for diagnosis of neonatal sepsis. Therefore, CRP could be used as diagnostic inflammatory biomarker in resource poor settings.
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