The spread of a multi-resistant glucose-acidifying Acinetobacter calcoaceticus strain in a community hospital was studied. After admission of a colonized patient to the hospital the strain was found in clinical specimens from ICU patients and subsequently from several of these patients after transfer to medical wards. Environmental specimens from the ICU and medical wards were analysed in order to investigate the mode of spread of the strain. Isolates of A. calcoaceticus were screened by their antibiotic resistance pattern. In addition, the cell envelope protein electrophoretic profiles were used as epidemiological markers. The multi-resistant acinetobacters all had the same protein profile. To prevent spread of the epidemic strain strict hygienic measures were enforced, e.g. scrupulous cleaning of the room after discharge of any colonized patient and increased attention to the hand hygiene of the medical and nursing staff. Furthermore, the use of antibiotics was restricted. Although this strain was only eradicated with difficulty in the affected patients, it did not spread throughout the hospital. Colonization of patients with the multi-resistant micro-organism was predominantly localized to the ICU.

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In the intensive care unit, standard procedures for preparing syringes for intravenous administration of drugs lack vigorous aseptic precautions, leading to a high contamination rate of the infusate. This risk is increased when ampules instead of 50 mL-vials are used to prepare the syringes.

One hundred and four patients with complicated urinary tract infections (prolonged severe chronic infections or with complicated postoperative conditions) were treated for ten days with pefloxacin 400 mg bid. Bacteriological eradication of the initial pathogen was achieved in 98% of the patients. After six weeks 93% of the patients were still free of the initial infecting microorganism. Clinical improvement was achieved in 77% of the patients five to seven days after cessation of treatment. The side-effects which were definitely related to pefloxacin occurred in 9% of patients and were mostly of a gastro-intestinal, a neurological, or an allergic nature. No significant biochemical or haematological adverse reactions occurred.

Morphological and physiological characteristics of 13 non-orange coryneforms isolated from the rinds of soft cheeses were compared with 23 coryneforms (12 soil isolates identified as arthrobacters and 22 activated-sludge isolates). The cheese strains can be differentiated from the arthrobacters mainly by their physiological features, which correlate well with differences in the amino acid and sugar compositions of the cell walls of the two groups of organisms: mesodiaminopimelic acid and arabinose are present in the cell walls of the non-orange cheese coryneforms and lysine and glucose are present in the cell walls of the soil arthrobacters. The non-orange cheese coryneforms contain corynomycolic acids, indicating a certain relationship with corynebacteria. From these and earlier studies on morphology and physiology and from hybridization experiments and deoxyribonucleic acid base composition determinations on the non-orange cheese coryneforms, it is concluded that these organisms belong to a new genus and species, for which the names Caseobacter and C. polymorphus, respectively, are proposed. Strain AC 256 is designated the type strain of C. polymorphus.Non-orange coryneform bacteria showing a pleomorphic morphology constitute an important part of the surface flora of both hard and soft cheeses. Initially, Mulder and Antheunisse (22) classified them as cheese arthrobacters from soil and noted their distinct pleomorphic morphology. However, further investigation (21) revealed that the gray-white cheese coryneforms, as well as the orange cheese coryneforms of the Brevibacterium linens type, deviate from soil arthrobacters with respect to nutritional requirements (particularly concerning nitrogen compounds and vitamins), salt tolerance, and production of polysaccharides. Furthermore, soil arthrobacters metabolize glucose more readily than do the cheese strains. The latter, however, oxidize glucose nearly completely in contrast to the soil arthrobacters, which convert about half of the glucose into reserve material, namely, glycogen. Consequently, Mulder et al. (23) concluded that gray-white cheese coryneforms should not be placed in the genus Arthrobacter, a view supported by the inability of the nonorange cheese coryneforms to decompose both urea and uric acid (3) and by the results of comparative studies on the morphological and physiological properties of both groups of coryneforms (8). The deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) base compositions of most of the strains in the two groups are in the range of 65 to 67 mol% guanine plus cytosine (G+C), but a low degree (26%) of binding was obtained in hybridization experiments between DNA samples from representatives of both groups (7).The majority of the non-orange cheese strains tested, although isolated from different types of soft cheeses, show a nucleotide-sequence relatedness of more than 86% (7). Consequently, this group of strains belongs to one genospecies according to the criteria set forth by De Ley (12) and Brenner (5), namely, 70% or more nucleotide-sequence rela...