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Introduction: Clostridium difficile infection is known as the primary cause of nosocomial gastroenteritis, which accounts for approximately 20-25% of all diarrhea. Infection can lead to a potentially fatal disease and the incidence of that is increasing worldwide., Aim: The aim of the authors was to examine retrospectively the growing importance of Clostridium difficile infections at the Infectology Department of the University of Szeged, Hungary., Methods: Patients with acute gastroenteritis admitted to the Department from 2005 to 2006 and from 2008 to 2011 were studied., Results: In 2005 and 2006, Salmonella infections occurred most frequently, followed by Campylobacter species and toxin-producing Clostridium difficile infections. From 2008 the authors witnessed a continuous increase in the incidence of Clostridium difficile infections. As a result, toxin positive Clostridium difficile became the leading pathogenic agent among patients with acute gastroenteritis by the year of 2009. Besides demonstrating the increasing incidence and severity of Clostridium difficile infection, prognostic factors such as co-morbidities and laboratory parameters of inflammation were also identified., Conclusion: The results confirm the increasing importance of Clostridium difficile infection among patients with acute gastroenteritis.

Neonatal infections may be caused by various microorganisms, but as far as we are aware, Acinetobacter ursingii has not yet been reported in connection with nosocomial infections of premature infants. During 2 months, 3 premature babies were treated with nosocomial infection caused by A. ursingii at the same ward, and on the basis of molecular typing results the same strain was responsible for all of these cases. Traditional biochemical methods and automatic identification systems failed to identify this bacterium on the species level, and only 16S rDNA sequencing gave acceptable species identifications. The isolated strains proved to be susceptible to all of the tested antimicrobials, including ampicillin/sulbactam, doxycyclin, netilmicin, ciprofloxacin, piperacillin/tazobactam, ceftazidime, imipenem, meropenem, trimethoprim/sulfametoxazole, gentamicin, tobramycin, amikacin, and levofloxacin according to the CLSI standard. In spite of the environmental screening, the source of the infection could not be clarified. One of 3 neonates died, the others recovered and were discharged home after several months of hospitalization., (Copyright 2009 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.)

The applicability of the repetitive-sequence-based PCR (rep-PCR)-based DiversiLab system was tested compared with the pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) to type a phenotypically similar subset of a large collection of multiresistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains isolated during a 17-month period from patients treated in different wards including 4 intensive care units (ICUs). Five environmental P. aeruginosa isolates obtained from one of the ICUs were also included. The DiversiLab system and the PFGE demonstrated the genetic relationship among the isolates with the same efficacy. One of the environmental isolates had the same rep-PCR type as the circulating clone. Multilocus sequence typing of one of the clinical isolates of the circulating clone proved that it is a member of a clonal complex of P. aeruginosa that has not been previously described in clinical samples., (Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the aetiology and susceptibility of different Candida species originating from blood cultures received from different clinical wards of the University Hospital in Szeged, Hungary, from 1996 to 2000. A total of 145 episodes of fungaemia occurred in 68 patients. In 73.5% of the patients the infections were due to Candida albicans, 7.3% to C. parapsilosis, 5.9% to C krusei, 4.4% to C. tropicalis and 3% each to C. glabrata, other Candida spp. and Cryptococcus neoformans. There were no appreciable differences in the distribution of yeast species during the 5-year period: C. albicans remained the predominant species causing bloodstream infections in this hospital, similar to the results of other studies (Norway, SENTRY Program in USA, Canada and South America). Most of the Candida isolates (39.3%) were from blood cultures of patients hospitalised in surgical wards, 28.3% were from adult intensive care units (ICUs), 13.8% from paediatric ICUs, 11% from haematology and 7.6% from cardiology departments. MICs for amphotericin B, fluconazole and itraconazole were determined for 83% of the isolates. All isolates were susceptible to amphotericin B. The percentage of yeast isolates with decreased susceptibility or resistance to fluconazole was smaller (15.7%) than that for itraconazole (24%).