An indirect ELISA for the diagnosis of melioidosis.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Very little information is available on melioidosis in India. This disease caused by Burkholderia pseudomallei is not often considered as a differential diagnosis and patients are not usually investigated for it. Thus we are unaware of its prevalence in India. This study was undertaken to detect the presence of melioidosis in patients presenting with pyrexia of unknown origin (PUO) using an indirect ELISA. METHODS: The well established ELISA technique was adapted to detect melioidosis in patients attending the Christian Medical College and Hospital, Vellore and to provide a serological test using reagents with a reasonable shelf-life. The ELISA is designed to detect IgG antibodies to B. pseudomallei in serum samples. RESULTS: A cut-off optical density (OD) of 0.36 (mean +/- 2 SD of healthy controls) was chosen as diagnostic criterion for the diseased group. The mean OD values in the sera of patients with culture proven melioidosis was significantly (P < 0.001) higher than that of healthy controls. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSION: The indirect ELISA was simple to perform and may be recommended as a diagnostic serological test when melioidosis is considered as a differential diagnosis.

Incidence of methicillin resistant coagulase positive & coagulase negative staphylococci in blood cultures.

Isolates of Staphylococcus aureus and coagulase negative staphylococci (CONS) from blood culture of bacteraemic patients were studied for methicillin resistance is 1993 and 1996. An increase in methicillin resistance among these isolates was observed in 1996. In 1993, 32.6 per cent isolates of S. aureus were methicillin resistant, this increased to 45.7 per cent in 1996. Methicillin resistance in CONS were 1.6 and 14.6 per cent respectively in 1993 and 1996. This increase in methicillin resistance may pose therapeutic problems and requires more effective drugs based on susceptibility testing of such isolates.