Plasmid and Restriction Endonuclease Analyses of Bacteria Associated with Pneumonia in HIV/AIDS Patients in Ekiti State, Nigeria.

Bacterial infections are an important cause of morbidity and mortality in individuals with the human immunodeficiency virus. The emergence of multiple-drug resistant bacteria has been documented by many researches. This study was therefore carried out to determine whether the resistances of bacterial isolates from HIV positive and HIV negative patients are plasmid mediated or chromosomal mediated. The Plasmid, Post Plasmid-curing Sensitivity and Restriction enzymes endonuclease were done using standard methods. The result of plasmid analysis showed that Plasmid-mediated resistance was observed in both populations and the molecular weight of the plasmid DNA was 1000 base pairs. Plasmid mediated resistance was common, and this was observed in all isolates from HIV/AIDS patients with exceptions of P. aeruginosa in which the resistance was chromosomally mediated. Restriction endonuclease analysis from E. coli revealed 3 distinct clusters. The result of restriction enzymes analysis indicate that the pneumonia infection in HIV/AIDS patients is likely to be hospital acquired in the study location. The study also suggests a common source of infection of the patients.

A Case of Nocardia asteroides type I Induced Pneumonia / 대한진단검사의학회지

Nocardia species are opportunistic pathogens that are known to affect mostly the immunocompromised patients. Recently, we experienced a young systemic lupus erythromatosus female patient having infected with Nocardia species, which we were able to isolate from her lung abscess. The patient is twenty-nine years old female who was diagnosed as having systemic lupus erythromatosus two years ago and is currently engaged with ongoing treatment. During her admission, new symptoms of fever and dyspnea along with a lesion in the apical lobe of her left lung found by simple chest X-rays were observed. Under lung biopsy examination, there were seen neutrophilic exudates that were gram-positive, AFB-negative, and modified AFB-positive. By culturing the biopsy material, we found gram-positive, AFB-negative, and modified AFB-positive branching hyphaes that were morphologically matched for Nocardia species. We have analyzed the Nocardia DNA by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method and found the organism to be Nocardia asteroides type I. Treatment of patient was done using sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim and ceftriazone, and her clinical conditions as well as her radiological findings improved.