Encephalopathy is a rare side effect of third- and fourth-generation cephalosporins. Renal failure and previous disease of the central nervous system predispose to this neurotoxicity. We describe a case of encephalopathy with generalised triphasic waves in a patient with pre-existent cerebrovascular disease who was treated with ceftriaxone for a urinary tract infection. Early recognition of thi...

This study reports a case of Serratia marcescens cellulitis following a snakebite in a 50-year-old woman. The bite was on the dorsum of the right hand with symptoms of envenomation. She developed swelling and cellulitis with tissue necrosis. Wound debridement was performed.  Pus and tissue biopsy cultures yielded Serratia marcescens sensitive to fluoroquinolones, aminoglycosides, third-generati...

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is an important causative agent of gastroenteritis, with the consumption of contaminated seafood being the major transmission route. Resistance to penicillin is common among V. parahaemolyticus strains, whereas cephalosporin resistance remains rare. In an attempt to assess the current prevalence and characteristics of antibiotic resistance of this pathogen in common food...

Cefepime is a new cephalosporin antibiotic which is highly active against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative organisms. The purpose of this study was to establish the in-vitro activity of cefepime and three other cephalosporins against recent clinical isolates from patients at the General Hospital Kuala Lumpur. A total of 334 strains comprising Enterobacteriaceae, non-fermentative Gram-negati...

Of 150 clinical isolates of Neisseria gonorrhoeae recovered in 2001, we examined 55 clinical isolates of N. gonorrhoeae for which cefixime MICs were > or=0.125 microg/ml and randomly selected 15 isolates for which cefixime MICs were < or =0.06 microg/ml for analysis of alterations in the penicillin-binding protein 2 (PBP 2) gene. We found insertion of an extra codon (Asp-345a) in the transpepti...

Dear Editor, Acute infectious diarrhoea continues to be a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in children in low income countries. Among bacterial isolates, Shigella spp and Salmonella spp are known to contribute to the high burden of this illness in children. Recent literature survey reveals a sharp declining of prevalence of S. Typhi, while non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS) and Shigella...

Cephalosporins belong to the family of beta-lactam antibiotics. Comparing the first-discovered penicillin, cephalosporins have obvious advantages since they are more stable to penicillinase and are more effective to many penicillin-resistant strains. The incidence of adverse effects for cephalosporins is also lower than that for penicillins and other anti-infectious agents. Thus, cephalosporins...