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SARS-CoV-2 is a major public health problem worldwide. Since its emergence, several diagnostic kits have been developed to ensure rapid patient management. The aim of our study is to check the performance of the new Moroccan SARS-CoV-2 detection kit: MAScIR SARS-CoV-2 M 2.0. The following parameters were studied: repeatability, reproducibility, analytical specificity, analytical sensitivity, and comparison with the GeneFinder™ COVID-19 Plus RealAmp Kit. In addition, an external quality evaluation comprising five specimens was carried out as part of an international program for the external quality evaluation of sublaboratories of the WHO and the Laboratory Office of the National Institute of Hygiene of Morocco. The results of all parameters studied showed an analytical performance that complied with the requirements of the method verification/validation protocol adopted by the Central Laboratory of Virology and met the recommendations of COFRAC (French Accreditation Committee). During the current study, the sequencing of some randomly selected positive samples was performed, among which the carriers of the Alpha variant, the Delta variant, and the Omicron variant were detected. These results allowed us to deduce that this kit was valid for detecting these three variants.

Abstract Background Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii has recently been defined by the World Health Organization as a critical pathogen. The aim of this study was to compare clonal diversity and carbapenemase-encoding genes of A. baumannii isolates collected from colonized or infected patients and hospital environment in two intensive care units (ICUs) in Morocco. Methods The patient and environmental sampling was carried out in the medical and surgical ICUs of Mohammed V Military teaching hospital from March to August 2015. All A. baumannii isolates recovered from clinical and environmental samples, were identified using routine microbiological techniques and Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed using disc diffusion method. The carbapenemase-encoding genes were screened for by PCR. Clonal relatedness was analyzed by digestion of the DNA with low frequency restriction enzymes and pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and the multi locus sequence typing (MLST) was performed on two selected isolates from two major pulsotypes. Results A total of 83 multidrug-resistant A. baumannii isolates were collected: 47 clinical isolates and 36 environmental isolates. All isolates were positive for the bla OXA51-like and bla OXA23-like genes. The coexistence of bla NDM-1 /bla OXA-23-like and bla OXA 24-like /bla OXA-23-like were detected in 27 (32.5%) and 2 (2.4%) of A. baumannii isolates, respectively. The environmental samples and the fecally-colonized patients were significantly identified (p

Abstract Background Children with cardiac defects need many hospitalizations and repetitive antibiotic therapies, with an increasing risk of colonization with multidrug-resistant bacteria (MDRB) such as extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (ESBL-E) Post-operative infections with these bacteria in paediatric cardiac surgery are life threatening. This article aims to study the prevalence of ESBL colonization among paediatric cardiac surgery patients, and to compare occurrence of post-operative infections with and without ESBL colonization. We also aim to study the correlation between the onset of postoperative infection and other parameters such as age, length of stay and preoperative antibiotic therapy. Methods A retrospective cohort study included paediatric cardiac surgery patients in Cheikh Zaid hospital in Rabat, Morocco, between the 1st of January 2011 and 31 December 2014. A screening for ESBL colonization was requested for children who had a risk factor (previous hospitalization and/or taking antibiotics) at admission. Swabs were collected from three sites (throat, nose and anus). Two groups were compared – patients colonized and not colonized with ESBLs. Statistical analysis was performed using R software. Results ESBL colonization screening was performed in 111 patients. Positive colonization was detected in 17 cases (15%). Klebsiella pneumoniae (KP): 9 (53%) was the most frequently isolated species. Among the 17 patients, 23.5% (4/17) developed a postoperative infection due to ESBLs versus only one patient without colonization (1%). There was a statically significant difference in terms of occurrence of postoperative infection between the two groups (p = 0.001). Relative risk of developing a postoperative infection with positive colonization was 22 (95% CI, 8.37–58.5). Conclusions The analysis of colonization with multidrug-resistant bacteria and the prevention of nosocomial infections appear to be important challenges for paediatric cardiac surgery. Systematic screening of ESBL colonization for cardiac surgery could have a significant contribution, on one hand to guide prophylactic antibiotic therapy of patients, and on the other, to prevent spread of those infections.

Objectives. We conducted a one-year observational study from December 2012 to November 2013 to describe the epidemiology of bacteraemia in intensive care units (ICU) of Mohammed V Military Teaching Hospital of Rabat (Morocco). Methods. The study consisted of monitoring all blood cultures coming from intensive care units and studying the bacteriological profile of positive blood cultures as well as their clinical significance. Results. During this period, a total of 46 episodes of bacteraemia occurred, which corresponds to a rate of 15,4/1000 patients. The rate of nosocomial infections was 97% versus 3% for community infections. The most common source of bacteraemia was the lungs in 33%, but no source was identified in 52% of the episodes. Gram negative organisms were isolated in 83,6% of the cases with Acinetobacter baumannii being the most frequent. Antibiotic resistance was very high with 42,5% of extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs) in Enterobacteriaceae and 100% of carbapenemase in Acinetobacter baumannii. The antibiotherapy introduced in the first 24 hours was adequate in 72% of the cases. Conclusions. Bloodstream infections in ICU occur most often in patients over 55 years, with hypertension and diabetes. The bacteria involved are mainly Gram negative bacteria multiresistant to antibiotics. Early administration of antibiotics significantly reduces patients mortality.

INTRODUCTION: this study aims to determine the Acinetobacter sp clinical isolates frequency and its antibiotic susceptibility pattern by comparing results obtained from the Intensive Care Units (ICUs) to that of other units at the Mohammed V Military Teaching Hospital in Rabat. METHODS: this is a retrospective study over a 2-years period where we collected all clinical isolates of Acinetobacter sp obtained from samples for infection diagnosis performed on hospitalized patients between 2012 to 2014. RESULTS: during the study period, 441 clinical and non-repetitive isolates of Acinetobacter sp were collected representing 6.94% of all bacterial clinical isolates (n=6352) and 9.6% of Gram negative rods (n=4569). More than a half of the isolates were from the ICUs and were obtained from 293 infected patients of which 65, 2% (191 cases) were males (sex ratio = 1.9) and the median age was 56 years (interquartile range: 42-68 years). Acinetobacter clinical isolates were obtained from respiratory samples (44.67%) followed by blood cultures (14.51%). The resistance to ciprofloxacin, ceftazidime, piperacillin / tazobactam, imipenem, amikacin, tobramycin, netilmicin,rifampicin and colistin was respectively 87%, 86%, 79%, 76%; 52%, 43%, 33% 32% and 1.7%. The difference in resistance between the ICUs and the other units was statistically significant (p =0.05) except for colistin, tetracycline and rifampicin. CONCLUSION: this paper shows that solving the problem of prevalence and high rate of multidrug resistant Acinetobacter infection which represents a therapeutic impasse, requires the control of the hospital environment and optimizing hands hygiene and antibiotics use in the hospital.

Treatment of Acinetobacter baumannii meningitis is an important challenge due to the accumulation of resistance of this bacteria and low meningeal diffusion of several antimicrobial requiring use of an antimicrobial effective combination to eradicate these species. We report a case of Acinetobacter baumannii multidrug-resistant nosocomial meningitis which was successfully treated with intravenous and intrathecal colistin associated with rifampicin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]