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In this paper, we have described cases of nocardiosis that occurred in our hospital and examined the literature on other nocardiosis cases recorded in Italy. We have collected the clinical details of our recent cases and described them in full. Regarding the older cases in our hospital and the Italian cases present in the literature, we noted the clinical data, the Nocardia species involved, and the antimicrobial susceptibility reported. The survey was carried out on PubMed. The first of our cases is an elderly woman with compromised health who had a lung and bloodstream infection. A second case is a middle-aged man who developed an infection in the thigh. A third patient is a middle-aged man on immunosuppressive therapy who developed a cerebral abscess. Our review shows that patients are usually immunocompromised, with an average age of 60 years, and more frequently males. The most affected organs are the lungs and the brain, and the most reported species is Nocardia farcinica. Antimicrobial susceptibility tests show good efficacy of linezolid, cotrimoxazole and amikacin. We conclude that, if a Nocardia infection is suspected, the most likely species to be considered in Italy is N. farcinica. In addition, if empirical therapy is needed, we suggest relying on linezolid, cotrimoxazole or amikacin.

Listeriosis is a disease usually associated with the consumption of low-processed ready-to-eat food products contaminated by Listeria monocytogenes. In Italy, listeriosis has an incidence of 0.19-0.27 cases per 100000 persons. Since detailed information concerning the molecular characterization of listeriosis in the Italian Veneto region is currently lacking, we analyzed 36 L. monocytogenes clinical isolates collected between 2009 and 2014. Results show that the serotype 1/2a was the most represented among the tested samples. No antimicrobial resistance was detected in selected isolates representing the main pulsotypes.

Plasmodium knowlesi is a simian parasite responsible for most human cases of malaria in Malaysian Borneo. A timely recognition of infection is crucial because of the risk of severe disease due to the rapid increase in parasitemia. We report a case of P. knowlesi infection in a traveller who developed fever and thrombocytopenia after returning from the Philippines in 2016. Rapid antigen test was negative, microscopy examination showed parasites similar to Plasmodium malariae, with a parasite count of 10,000 parasites per μL blood, while molecular testing identified P. knowlesi infection. Treatment with atovaquone-proguanil led to resolution of fever and restoration of platelet count in two days. P. knowlesi infection should be suspected in febrile travellers returning from South East Asia. Due to the low sensitivity of rapid antigen tests and the low specificity of microscopy, confirmation by molecular tests is recommended.

This paper reports the multilocus sequence typing (MLST) of 57 C. jejuni and C. coli isolates from humans and chickens in Italy and the identification of 17 new sequence types (STs). A high genetic diversity was detected among C. jejuni/C. coli and human/chicken isolates, with a predominance of clonal complexes CC21 and CC828. Although human STs were not the same as those found in chickens, 3 CCs overlapped between human and chicken isolates. Genotyping of Campylobacter strains by MLST should be encouraged in order to implement surveillance and con- trol of infection in humans and in animal reservoirs in Italy.