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Bacteriological survey of one hundred twenty currency notes was done. Aerobic spore-forming bacilli (91%), Staphylococcus epidermidis (63.3%), Staphylococcus aureus (4.2%), Enterococcus (24.1%), alpha-hem. streptococcus (4.1%), Streptococcus pneumoniae (1.7%), Corynebacterium (7.5%), Lactobacilli (10.8%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (31.7%), Enterobacter (19.2%), E. coli (17.5%), Proteus (1.7%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (0.8%), Shigella flexneri (0.8%) were isolated from paper money samples. Currency notes in general were bacteriologically contaminated especially with enteric pathogens and potentially pathogens, it was thought that some measures have to be taken to reduce these ill effects.

Malaria, being among the most important diseases throughout history, is still an important public health problem among parasitic diseases due to increasing population movements with various reasons such as migration, war and travel. According to WHO data each year 300-350 million people get exposed to malaria, each year 1.5-2.7 million people die from malaria and also 40% of the world's population is still at risk for this disease. According to World Health Organisation (WHO) data, imported cases were not reported since 2013 in our country. However among imported cases Plasmodium falciparum malaria can be observed. The aim of this study wasto draw attention to the imported malaria cases increasing gradually and to the importance of the chemoprophylaxis in terms of malaria before travelling. In the study, male patients who have admitted to Hatay Province Malaria Center or Mustafa Kemal University Infectious Disease Department, ages between 25-60 years, were analyzed. All of the patients have worked abroad before. Patients were mostly from Sudan but there were also patients from endemic regions such as Africa, Nigeria, Pakistan, Mali island. The cases were evaluated according to age, gender and whether they had travel stories in Turkey or abroad. Blood samples taken from the patients were firstly prepared by thin and thick smear preparations and examined microscopically by staining with Giemsa stain method. Samples that were found positive by microscopic examination were impregnated on drying papers and genotyped using nested-PCR. Out of the 30 samples from patients who had traveled to endemic countries before, determined as positive by microscopical examination and genotyped by nested-PCR, 16 of them were identified as P.falciparum, six of them as P.vivax and eight of them as P.falciparum/P.vivax. The study suggested that malaria prophylaxis has to be applied before travelling to endemic countries, in return imported malaria has to be considered one of the first diseases in mind and people who will travel should be informed about this disease before travel.

We read with interestingly the paper named "A Rare Cause of Pneumonia: Shewanella putrefaciens" presented by Durdu et al. published in Mikrobiyol Bul 2012; 46(1): 117-21. S.putrefaciens is a gram-negative, facultative anaerobic and non-fermentative rod that rarely causes infections in humans. First, the authors reported that antibotic sensitivity tests of S.putrefaciens in the presented case were performed by Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method. However, there is no recommendation about the antibiotic susceptibility testing by disc diffusion test for this bacteria in Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI), European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST), and British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC) guidelines. According to CLSI criteria, antibiotic susceptibility tests for S.putrefaciens should be done by a method which detects minimal inhibitory concentration. Second, this paper reported that S.putrefaciens was sensitive to third generation cephalosporins and penicillins. Besides, the authors suggested that susceptibility of these bacteria to these antibiotics was helpful for the differential diagnosis of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and S.putrefaciens. However, in the literature, S.putrefaciens had been reported as resistant to penicillin. We thought that these additional information would be helpful in the future studies related to S.putrefaciens.

Imipenem, cefaperazon-sulbactam and cefepime are the antibiotics of choice for the treatment of soft tissue infections due to Acinetobacter baumannii. In this study, it was aimed to determine the invivo and invitro efficacy of, these antibiotics against drug susceptible and multidrug resistant A.baumannii in an experimental abscess model. Abscess models were established in Wistar-Albino type female rats. Susceptibility tests were performed by E-test. Rats were divided randomly into four groups with eight rats in one group. Standard absorbent paper discs containing 6 log10 CFU microorganisms were used to form an abscess model. The first group was regarded as the control group and the other three groups were the study group each treated with one of the test antibiotics. Cardiac blood samples for serum antibiotic efficacy test, were obtained on the fourth day of treatment and 30 minutes after the last dose. The number of live bacteria at the area of infection was determined by colony count method. All of the three antibiotics reached sufficient concentration in sera of rats and there were no statistically important difference between the efficacies of these antibiotics (p= 0.778). In all of the antibiotic-treated groups, the weight of the abscess material were less, macroscopic views were smaller and the colony counts per gram of abscess tissue were less than the control group (p< 0.001). All antibiotics were effective against susceptible and resistant strains in vitro. No resistance was detected against imipenem, cefaperazon-sulbactam and cefepime in the course of therapy. Cefaperazone-sulbactam and cefepime were as effective as imipenem against susceptible and multi-drug resistant A.baumannii both in vivo and in vitro. Since irrational use of extended spectrum cephalosporins are frequently associated with the emergence of carbapenem resistant strains, the use of relatively narrow spectrum antibiotics should better be considered in the empirical treatment of A.baumannii infections.

Cupriavidus pauculus (formerly CDC Group IVc-2) is a non-fermentative, motile, gram-negative bacillus, rarely associated with human infections. It has been isolated from water, water from ultrafiltration systems and bottled mineral water. To date, 19 cases of bacteremia, two cases of peritonitis and one case of tenosynovitis associated with C. pauculus have been reported in English literature. In this paper, we report the first case of C. pauculus ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in Turkey. A 47 years-old female with breast cancer was performed total mastectomy six years ago and received six cures of chemotherapy after surgery. The patient was hospitalized in medical oncology clinic with complaints of weight loss, nausea and vomiting for one year. Since she had problems of consiousness, dysphagia and pitosis, lumbar puncture was performed to rule out central nervous system infection or metastasis. Cryptococcal meningitis was diagnosed upon the examination of Indian-ink stained smear of cerebrospinal fluid and amphotericin B was initiated. On the 11th day of her follow up, she developed respiratory distress and was transferred to pulmonary intensive care and underwent invasive mechanical ventilator (IMV) therapy. On the 4th day of IMV; a new infiltration was detected on the upper zone of chest X-ray in addition to fever (38.3 degrees C) and intense endotracheal secretion. Therefore, bronchoscopic examination was performed and bronchoalveolar lavage and bronchoscope aspiration materials were obtained and cultivated. Bacteria grown at blood agar and EMB agar after 48 hours of incubation were stained as gram-negative bacilli and identified as C. pauculus by VITEK 2 compact system (bioMérieux Inc, USA). The strain was susceptible to ceftazidime, ciprofloxacin, imipenem, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, piperacilin/tazobactam and resistant to amikacin. The case was considered as C. pauculus VAP and imipenem (500 mg, 4 x 1) for 14 days was initiated. Clinical and microbiological resolution was achieved by imipenem therapy. In conclusion, rare pathogens like C. pauculus should be considered among the possible causative agents in infections that develop in immunocompromised host.

Brucellosis is a major public health problem in Turkey and all over the world. Joint pain, night sweats, anorexia, weakness, loss of weight and headache are the basic symptoms of brucellosis and the illness can affect many organs. Genitourinary involvement is reported in 2-20% of cases, epididimoorchitis being the most frequent complication, however, prostatic involvement is far more uncommon. In this paper, a case of Brucella prostatitis misdiagnosed as prostate carcinoma has been presented. A 50-years-old man who was a microbiology laboratory staff has been admitted to our outpatient clinic with the complaints of joint pain, weakness, fever, urgency, difficulty and pain during urination. Since prostate specific antigen (PSA) was 23.6 ng/ml (normal value < 4 ng/ml) and free PSA (fPSA) was 3.89 ng/ml (normal value < 1 ng/ml), needle biopsy from the prostate was performed. Blood cultures performed by BACTEC 9200 (Becton Dickinson, Sparks, Md.) system yielded Brucella melitensis, and the pathological examination of the prostate biopsy revealed prostatic hyperplasia and prostatitis. Brucella standard tube agglutination titer was 1/320. Upon the diagnosis of Brucella prostatitis the patient was treated with a combination of 200 mg doxycycline and 600 mg rifampicin daily for 6 months. During the follow-up period no complication was detected in the patient and the PSA level decreased to 1.57 ng/ml and fPSA to 0.43 ng/ml. This case was reported to withdraw attention to prostatic involvement during brucellosis. Elevated PSA values with the signs and symptoms of brucellosis in endemic areas should be evaluated accordingly and appropriate therapy should be initiated without any delay.

Micrococcus strains which are the normal flora members of skin, mucosa and oropharynx, may lead to infections associated with intravenous catheter, chronic ambulatory peritoneal dialysis, venticular shunt and prosthetic valve. In this paper, a case of peritonitis due to Kocuria rosea of Micrococcea family, in a patient undergoing continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD), was presented. Fiftysix years old female patient was admitted to the hospital by complaints of abdominal pain, nausea and fever. The patient was undergoing CAPD due to chronic renal failure for one and a half year and turbidity was detected in the peritoneal fluid during dialysis. Examination of the peritoneal fluid revealed 1800 cells/mm3, with no evidence of bacteria in Gram and Ziehl-Neelsen stained smears. No bacterial growth was detected in conventional culture media, however, bacteria was isolated from the peritoneal fluid culture on second day by Bactec (Becton Dickinson, USA) automated blood culture system. By means of API identification system (bioMerieux, USA), the causative agent was identified as Kocuria rosea. The patient was successfully treated with intraperitoneal teicoplanin (4 x 40 mg) for 14 days. In conclusion, in patients undergoing CAPD, rare pathogens should be considered in case of peritonitis and peritoneal fluid samples should be inoculated into automated culture systems.

The coagulase-negative bacterial species Staphylococcus sciuri is widely distributed in the natural environment. Although principally found in animals, S. sciuri is occasionally isolated from human samples. In this paper, S. sciuri bacteremia which was associated with an indwelling catheter of a patient with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and neutropenia was presented. An empirical intravenous antibiotic therapy (meropenem, vancomycin) was initiated with the preliminary diagnosis of febrile neutropenia and catheter infection. The catalase and oxidase positive, tube coagulase negative strain isolated from three of the concurrent blood cultures and intravenous catheter culture has been identified as S. sciuri. The isolate was found resistant to penicilin and oxacilline. This case has emphasized the importance of identification of coagulase-negative staphylococci isolated from the cultures of patients with haematological malignancy.

In this paper, the essential points in classification of bacteria were given. In addition, a short history of the classification and the medical importance of the bacteria were listed.

In this paper a common antigenic factor between S. cholerae-suis 211, S. cholerae-suis var. kunzendorf 1350, S. cholerae-suis var. kunzendorf 5210 was shown by absorption and agglutination tests. This common antigenic factor was not present in S. thompson.

Progress on cultivating of malaria parasites outside their hosts has been slow because of the complex life cycle of these parasites. Efficient systems for cultivating are urgently needed, especially for vaccinations. These and related facts are summarized in this paper.

In this paper, a S. san-diego food poisoning outbreak of 24 people who ate the same food is presented. This is the first report of a S. san-diego food poisoning outbreak in Turkey.

As elsewhere in the world, the number of resistant enteric bacteria is rapidly increasing in this country. In a survey made in 1977 on about 40,000 strains of enteric bacteria in Clinical Pathology Laboratory of Hacettepe University Medical School, Ankara, Turkey, 70% to 97% of enteric bacteria were shown to be resistant to conventional antimicrobic agents. Also the rates of multiple-resistant strains of enteric bacteria are increasing quite rapidly. In most of these strains this increase proved to depend on the presence of R plasmids. In this paper, these and related facts were summarized and some precautions were suggested to lessen the increase of resistant strains in this country.

In this paper, a fatal Cryptococcus meningitis has been reported. This type of meningitis is quite rare in this country.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections activated after renal transplantation due to immunosuppressive therapy are commonly diagnosed by serological tests and virus isolation procedures. In this paper, 35 renal transplant patients were investigated in order to detect seroconversion in 2nd 3rd months after transplantation by using CMV-Elisa test and complement fixation test. In addition, applicability of these two tests in CMV serology is also discussed.

In this paper, a food poisoning outbreak of 42 people who ate the sucuk (Turkish sausage flavored with garlic) which was made of the same meat has been described. Salmonella typhimurium was isolated from the stool of 20 patients and from the sucuk. Efficacy rate of Ofloxacin was 75 percent in these 20 patients treated Ofloxacin.

There has been significant increase in the number of brucellosis cases admitted to our clinic within first 6 months of 1979. Since most of the cases were from Ayaş, Polatli and Oltan villages we visited Oltan and examined 97 persons 23 of whom had complaints of fever, arthralgia and sweating. In addition to previous 5 cases, 5 more patients were found to have antibody titers of 160-640. In the control group none of the randomly chosen outpatients had titers higher than 40. Three milk samples taken from 12 sheep also had antibodies against brucella. Six B. melitensis strains isolated from these and the other patients were sensitive to terramycin, rifampicin and streptomycin; but resistant to sulfonamide, chloramphenicol and clindamycin. Four of them were sensitive to bactrim and ampicillin. In this paper, the findings of 17 cases of brucellosis other than from those of Oltan have also been presented.

During an epidemic in the premature ward of Ankara Pediatric Hospital which lasted for almost 25 days, 15 cases were diagnosed and H2S (TSI medium) negative S. typhimurium strains were isolated 23 times on the specimens obtained from these patients. Specimens consisted of mainly stools but two were blood samples, one was a lung aspirate and two were pathologic materials obtained from the elbow and hip joints of the same patient. When these strains were transferred to Braun-Ozek B Medium, they were able to produce H2S which was detected because of the strong blackening on the lead acetate paper. Component replacement studies were performed to show which were necessary for the production of H2S in this second media. According to the results of this studies Pepton witte + meat extract broth + Na2S2O3 . 5H2O were found essential for the production of H2S in Braun-Ozek B. Medium. When this medium was prepared with the incorporation of ferrous ammonium sulfate instead of Na2S2O3, 5H2O, the production of H2S decreased and delayed.

In this paper, the intestinal bacterial flora is described and the functions of permanent bacterial flora and its individual members is discussed. The pertinent publications about the factors which effects the bacterial flora and specially relations between intestinal parasites and bacterial flora is reviewed. Among these parasites giardia, amoebae, B. coli and Ascaris may change bacterial population by causing malabsorption syndromes. Some drugs used in treatment of parasitic infestations may have harmful effects on normal intestinal bacterial flora. In parasitic diseases the probable floral changes could be looked for and taken into the consideration for a successful treatment of the patients.

Acute gastroenteritis is a major cause of hospital admission with attendant morbidity and occasional mortality. Campylobacter jejuni recently has been recognized as a common cause of acute bacterial gastroenteritis in children and adults. Its frequency of isolation is comparable to and in many studies exceeds that of Salmonella isolations from diarrheal stools of hospitalized patients. Medical workers in many parts of the world confirmed that Campylobacter jejuni was found more commonly in feces in diarrheic than in non-diarrheic people. The feces is loose to watery and commonly contains blood and leukocytes. Although, Campylobacter jejuni has been isolated from feces and gallbladder of healthy and diarrheic animals, until now, to our knowledge, there is no report on the isolation of the microorganism from healthy or diarrheic subjects in Turkey. This paper reports three human infections found to have Campylobacter jejuni in their stools as part of our ongoing investigation of the incidence of diarrheal disease due to this organism.

In this study, agglutinating sera against K. africana, K. corticis, K. javanica var. javanica and K. javanica var lafarii are prepared. Cross agglutination and absorption tests are carried out with these four Kloeckera strains and an antigenic relationship is shown (see table I). There were no antigenic relationship between K. apicuata var. apis and these four Kloeckera strains. Also, in this paper, previous studies, like using Salmonella 0 : 6(2) agglutinating serum for serological differential diagnosis between K. javanica var. javanica and K. javanica var. lafarii and antigenic relationship between K. africana and Salmonella 0 : II and E. coli 0 : 75 antigens were also mentioned.

The penicillinase activities of 169 strains of staphylococci isolated from outpatients were detected by a simple technique that gives the result in 10 minutes on benzylpenicillin and bromocresol purple absorbed Whatman No 1 filter papers. Seventy three out of 100 S. aureus strain and 4 out of 69 S. albus were found to have the enzyme. The ratio of penicillin G resistance among S. aureus and S. albus were found to be 89% and 41% respectively. Six strains (6%) of S. aureus and 5 (7%) S. albus were resistant to both antibiotics. When the findings were compared with those previously reported in Turkey, it was seen that the proportion of the penicillinase + strains and the incidence of resistance in staphylococci to both kinds of penicillins was increased.

In this paper, the antigenic relationship among standard T. insectalens and T. musae strains and other 11 standard Torulopsis are investigated using simultaneous agglutination and absorption experiments. These experiments also showed that T. insectalens and T. musae have special antigenic fractions, different from Torulopsis antigens.

In this paper a common antigenic factor among Salmonella choleraesuis 0 antigen and standard Metschnikowia bicuspidata var. bicuspidata and M. pulcherrima strains is shown. This common factor was not present in M. bicuspidata var. australis, M. bicuspidata var. california, M. krissii and M. reukaufii strains. M. bicuspidata var. chathamia and M. zobellii showed agglutination in the previous experiments. According to these results, the use of S. choleraesuis 0:6,7 agglutinating serum for slide and tube agglutination tests can be a diagnostic aid for typing above mentioned Metschnikowia strains along with the other tests.