Emergence of Vibrio cholerae serogroup 0139 in Haryana in May-June 1993.

In an outbreak of acute watery diarrhoea, 11 strains of V. cholerae were isolated in May-June 1993 at Medical College, Rohtak. Eight of these belonged to serogroup Ogawa and three were identified as V. cholerae serogroup 0139. This is the first report of isolation of this novel serotype from this region.

Incidence of mycoses in bronchopulmonary disorders.

A total of 274 samples were collected--180 sputum samples, 82 bronchial secretions and 12 pleural aspirates. Main fungus was Candida albicans from sputum (45.5 percent), from bronchial secretions (14.6 percent). Rest were Aspergillus, Alternaria and Helminthosporium. All the pleural aspirates were negative for fungus.

Vaginitis in non pregnant women in Haryana.

Study was carried out in 100 patients of non-specific vaginitis (NSV) to find out the incidence of vaginitis due to G. vaginalis. Out of a total of 100 subjects 20 were positive for G. vaginalis as compared to only 6 in equal number of normal matched controls. One positive specimen showed concomitant presence of C. albicans and E. coli was found in another positive specimen. Presence of amines and clue cells in the discharge did not correlate with the isolation rate of G. vaginalis, thus emphasizing the necessity of culture to diagnose NSV due to G. vaginalis.

Multidrug-resistant Salmonella typhi in Haryana in 1989-90.

Of a total of 730 strains of S. typhi isolated in 1989-90, in the Medical College Hospital, Rohtak (India), 218 isolates showed resistance to chloramphenicol, ampicillin and cotrimoxazole. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for ampicillin and cotrimoxazole was up to 3200 micrograms/ml, intermediate for chloramphenicol (200-800 micrograms/ml) and low for tetracycline (50-400 micrograms/ml). A significant observation was prevalence of E1 as the predominant phage type amongst resistant strains accounting for 88.8 per cent of the resistant isolates, 95.8 per cent of these showed block resistance to ACCoT.

T and B lymphocytes in patients with enteric fever.

Estimation of T and B lymphocytes was done in 50 patients of enteric fever, 50 duration matched non enteric fever patients and 50 normal healthy individuals. The difference in both early and late rosette forming T lymphocytes was found to be statistically significant in enteric versus non-enteric patients. Significant difference was also observed in enteric versus normal individuals in case of late rosette forming T lymphocytes.

Resistotyping as a new epidemiological marker for Klebsiella pneumoniae.

Resistogram typing was established with the help of 30 randomly chosen clinical isolates of K. pneumoniae using sodium arsenate, malachite green, boric acid, potassium tellurite, mercuric chloride, antimony potassium tartarate and sodium arsenite. The resistance to these chemicals was designated as A, B, C, D, E, F and G respectively. The technique was then applied to 152 clinical isolates of K. pneumoniae. A total of 35 patterns were obtained. Common patterns were ABEFG and ABFG. There was no clustering of the strains in any of the resistogram patterns as even the commonest pattern had only 10.5 per cent of the strains. When combined with klebocin typing, it provided better discrimination of strains as strains belonging to seven klebocin types could be subdivided into 68 resistogram patterns. The reverse was also possible, i.e., the strains belonging to seven resistogram patterns could be subdivided into 38 klebocin types. The former procedure thus offered better discrimination of the strains.

Association of R plasmids of Klebsiella pneumoniae with resistance to heavy metals, klebocin and beta lactamase production and lactose fermentation.

One hundred and fifty clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae were studied for beta lactamase production, Klebocin production and resistance to antibiotics and metals. 97.3 and 82.7 per cent strains produced beta-lactamase and klebocin respectively. Resistance to arsenite, antimony, tellurite, mercury and silver was observed in 91,66,6, 47.7, 44.8 and 33.3 per cent respectively and to ampicillin, tetracycline and nalidixic acid in 93.3,60, 41.3, 34.4, 28.2, and 1.3 per cent respectively. Forty eight antibiotic and metal resistant strains were then conjugated with Escherichia coli 711 F-Lac-Nxr. Transferable drug resistance, metal ion resistance, beta lactamase production, klebocin production and lactose fermentation was seen in 30, 21, 10, 11 and 5 isolates respectively.