Search

Purpose: This study examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the well-being and mental health of the seafarers who had to overstay on ships after their contracts expired, identifies topics that affect their mental distress and recommends measures to overcome these. Design/methodology/approach: Four research questions about the impacts on the seafarers before and during the COVID-19 pandemic were raised. A literature review and a questionnaire survey were conducted to find answers. Ship officers were asked to assess and fill in the questionnaires for the stranded seafarers onboard in order to collect sufficient samples rapidly for this study. Findings: Despite the guidelines provided by the shipping companies being adequate to protect the seafarers from COVID-19, their mental distress levels have been worsened under the pandemic. The crew change crisis causes anxiety and negatively impacts on their working performance; however, the repatriation expectation of the stranded seafarers is of the highest concern. Three topics were identified as having impacts on the mental health of the stranded seafarers: crew change crisis, low vaccination rate and the lack of key worker recognition. While international stakeholders are advocating for support in these issues, the shipping companies and the seafarers need to do their parts to exacerbate the mental distress, and to survive and thrive beyond the pandemic. Originality/value: The findings of this study will help the shipping companies to navigate the challenges and the seafarers to overcome issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

AimsGranulomatous mastitis due to Corynebacterium kroppenstedtiiis an increasingly recognised cause of an indolent and distressing mastitis in non-lactating females. This slow-growing lipophilic organism is not reliably isolated using routine culture methods. A novel selective culture medium (CKSM) is designed to optimise the isolation of this organism from clinical specimens.MethodsCKSM contains 10% galactose and Tween 80 (10%) to enhance the growth of C. kroppenstedtii, fosfomycin (100 µg/mL) to suppress the other bacteria, and differentiate C. kroppenstedtiifrom non-kroppenstedtiilipophilic corynebacteria by esculin hydrolysis. The medium was evaluated for its ability to support the growth of C. kroppenstedtii, selection and differentiation of C. kroppenstedtiifrom other bacteria in non-sterile clinical specimens.ResultsC. kroppenstedtiigrew as 1–2 mm colonies with black halo on CKSM within 72 hours of incubation, compared with barely visible pinpoint colonies on routine blood agars. During the four-month period of evaluation with 8896 respiratory specimens, 103 breast specimens, 1903 female genital tract specimens, 617 newborn surface swabs and 10 011 miscellaneous specimens, 186 C. kroppenstedtiiwere isolated, including 127 (1.4%) respiratory and 59 (0.5%) miscellaneous specimens, 184 of them were found only on CKSM. Besides the three (2.9%) positive breast specimens, 27 (1.4%) high vaginal and endocervical swabs, and 11 (1.8%) surface swabs of newborns were positive for C. kroppenstedtii.ConclusionsCKSM is a useful addition to routine agar media for the isolation of C. kroppenstedtii,and will be helpful for studying the epidemiology and transmission of this unusual Corynebacteriumcausing granulomatous mastitis.

ABSTRACTHaemophilus influenzaeis associated with severe invasive disease, while Haemophilus haemolyticusis considered part of the commensal flora in the human respiratory tract. Although the addition of a custom mass spectrum library into the matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization–time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) system could improve identification of these two species, the establishment of such a custom database is technically complicated and requires a large amount of resources, which most clinical laboratories cannot afford. In this study, we developed a mass spectrum analysis model with 7 mass peak biomarkers for the identification of H. influenzaeand H. haemolyticususing the ClinProTools software. We evaluated the diagnostic performance of this model using 408 H. influenzaeand H. haemolyticusisolates from clinical respiratory specimens from 363 hospitalized patients and compared the identification results with those obtained with the Bruker IVD MALDI Biotyper. The IVD MALDI Biotyper identified only 86.9% of H. influenzae(311/358) and 98.0% of H. haemolyticus(49/50) clinical isolates to the species level. In comparison, the ClinProTools mass spectrum model could identify 100% of H. influenzae(358/358) and H. haemolyticus(50/50) clinical strains to the species level and significantly improved the species identification rate (McNemar's test, P< 0.0001). In conclusion, the use of ClinProTools demonstrated an alternative way for users lacking special expertise in mass spectrometry to handle closely related bacterial species when the proprietary spectrum library failed. This approach should be useful for the differentiation of other closely related bacterial species.