The secreted cysteine proteinase SpeB is an important virulence factor of group A streptococci (GAS), whereby SpeB activity varies widely among strains. To establish the degree to which SpeB activity correlates with disease, GAS organisms were recovered from patients with pharyngitis, impetigo, invasive disease or acute rheumatic fever (ARF), and selected for analysis using rigorous sampling cr...

OBJECTIVES To characterize the epidemiology of Staphylococcus aureus isolates resistant to fusidic acid isolated from patients with skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) in France, the UK and Ireland. METHODS One hundred and thirty-six S. aureus isolates with an MIC of fusidic acid above 1 mg/L were isolated during the EPISA study from patients more than 2 years old attending their general ...

OBJECTIVES We evaluated the susceptibility to fusidic acid, mupirocin and retapamulin of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from nasal and wound swabs. METHODS The susceptibility to the three agents of S. aureus isolated from general patients in the south of The Netherlands with a skin or soft tissue infection was determined between January 2007 and December 2008. Fusidic acid-resistant isolates ...

In vitro susceptibility tests of 201 strains of Staphylococcus aureus by agar dilution revealed 90% to be susceptible to 8 mug or less of cefaclor per ml. Strains from hospitalized children and adults were more often resistant than those from patients with bullous impetigo. Cephalothin was more active than cefaclor against all strains tested. Results with disk tests, including those strains exa...

LEO Pharma, Industriparken 55, DK-2750 Ballerup, Denmark; Statens Serum Institut, Artillerivej 5, DK-2300 Copenhagen, Denmark; Service de Bactériologie-Hygiène, CHU Pitié-Salpetrière, Paris, France; Hopital Robert Debré, Service Dermatologie, Avenue de Général Koening, F-51092 Reims Cedex, France; Department of Clinical Microbiology, Central Pathology Laboratory, St James’s Hospital, Dublin 8, ...

INTRODUCTION Scabies is a major public health problem in the Pacific and is associated with an increased risk of bacterial skin infections, glomerulonephritis and rheumatic fever. Mass drug administration with ivermectin is a promising strategy for the control of scabies. Mass treatment with ivermectin followed by active case finding was conducted in five communities in the Solomon Islands betw...