OBJECTIVE To assess the role of point-of-care (PoC) assessment of C-reactive protein (CRP) and white blood cell (WBC) count to identify bacterial illness in Tanzanian children with non-severe non-malarial fever. METHODS From the outpatient department of a district hospital in Tanzania, 428 patients between 3 months and 5 years of age who presented with fever and a negative malaria test were e...

BACKGROUND Bacteriophage infections of bacterial cultures cause serious problems in genetic engineering and biotechnology. They are dangerous not only because of direct effects on the currently infected cultures, i.e. their devastation, but also due to a high probability of spreading the phage progeny throughout a whole laboratory or plant, which causes a real danger for further cultivations. T...

AIMS To evaluate the adhesion ability of intestinal bacteria to different in vitro models of intestinal epithelia, and to estimate the suitability of these models and the type of interactions involved. METHODS AND RESULTS The adhesion of probiotic (Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG and Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis Bb12), commensal (B. animalis IATA-A2 and B. bifidum IATA-ES2) and potential...