Assessment of the quality of water from some public coolers in Alexandria, Egypt

Drinking water from bottle-less coolers may pose some public health risks to consumers due to either chemical or microbiological contamination. This study was carried out aiming at assessing the quality of water dispensed from some public coolers in order to determine its compliance with the drinking water standards [Egyptian, EPA] and with the WHO guidelines. Twenty water coders were selected randomly from different districts. Water samples were collected thrice from these coolers and once from the mains supplying the coolers. Results of analysis of these samples revealed that 85% of water coolers were containing <0.5 mg/i free residual chlorine, S5% were containing lead higher than 0.01mg/I, and 55% were containing magnesium hardness higher than 150 mg/i. As for the biological contamination, 15% of the coolers were contaminated with Cryptosporidium parvum, 15% were containing total coliform group of bacteria, 5% gave positive thermotolerent coliform test and 5% gave positive Streptococcus fecalis test. The study concluded that such contamination might be from failureto thoroughly clean the coolers on a regular basis. Consequently, the study recommends proper installation of the cooler, a maintenance agreement with the coolerb supplier, testing cooler water a regular intervals by the Ministry Health represefltatives and-if possible-replacing these types of coolers with those with a water purification system

Take care MRSA is in the neighborhood

The aim of the study was to: [i] evaluate the evidence for the emergence of MRSA in our community [ii] to evaluate the antibiotic profile of the isolated CA-MRSA strains Material and Design: The clinical specimens were purulent exudates from different forms of suppurative skin lesions that were processed for isolation of S. aureus. The samples were obtained from 200 patients attending the outpatient clinic of the Dermatology Department in the Main University Hospital of Alexandria, Egypt] All samples were inoculated on to the surface of blood agar, oxacillin supplemented CHROMagar Staph aureus [CSA+], and oxacillin-supplemented Mueller Hinton agar [MH+]. Plates were examined after 24 hours and discarded as negative after 48 hours. All staphylococcal colonies isolated on each of CSA and MH+ were subjected to antibiotic susceptibility testing by the single disc diffusion method using: oxacillin, ciprofloxacin, vancomycin, gentamicin, erythromycin, clindamycin trimethoprim, and sulfamethoxazole. The most common bacteria isolated was S. aureus, isolated from 81.04% of the studied samples, where 45 [26.32%] were CA-MRSA. The sensitivity to detect CA-MRSA after 24 h by CSA+ was 73.33%. Prolonging the incubation period to 48 h improved the sensitivity to 95.56%. The sensitivity of MH+ after 24 h was 68.89%, increased to 80% after 48 h incubation. Multi-drug resistant strains of the isolated CA-MRSA represented 17.78%. Further evaluation of CHROMagar Staph aureus with direct clinical specimens is needed before this medium can be used for routine direct screening for MRSA. Though the aim of selective and differential media for isolation of MRSA was to reduce the time and work load needed for its full identification when using ordinary media [which is 48 h '[unfortunately 48 hours were required to increase the sensitivity of both CSA+ and MH+. So their use needs to be re-evaluated regarding cost, incubation time and performance. Empirical treatment should be guided by antibiotic susceptibility results due to the emergence of MRSA skin infection in the community

Evaluation of two enrichment broths, three plating media and ELISA technique for the isolation of salmonella from dairy products

Salmonella is one of the most important food-borne pathogens that can be transmitted through the consumption of contaminated milk and milk products. Early detection of Salmonella in food is important for food safety. Two selective media, brilliant green agar [BGA] and xylose lysine desoxycholate [XLD] agar are commonly used in diagnostic laboratories for the isolation of Salmonella, often after enrichment of the samples in a broth before plating on the solid medium. Recently, a new medium called CHROmagar Salmonella [CAS] has become available for the rapid detection of Salmonella. In the present study, we compared this new medium with BGA and XLD for the isolation of Salmonella from 160 dairy products samples [80 ice cream and 80 kariesh cheese samples] with enrichment in Rappaport- Vassiliadis [RV] and tetrathionate [TT] broth. TECRA Unique Salmonella ELISA test was used. Only one sample was positive for Salmonella, which appeared on each of CAS and XLD agars, after enrichment using RV but not TT. This was associated with a sensitivity and specificity of [100%, 92.45%], [100%, 93.71%] and [0%, 100%] for each of CHROmagar Salmonella, XLD and BGA respectively. TECRA Unique Salmonella test yielded the highest sensitivity and specificity among all used methods; it had 100% sensitivity with 100% specificity

Detection of coagulase positive staphylococci in meat products sold in Alexandria using two different media

Microbiological examination of 200 meat products collected from 30 supermarkets in Alexandria revealed that CHRO Magar Staph aureus yielded higher counts than Baird Parker medium that were significant in all examined products except sausage. The prevalence of coagulase positive staphylococci was 4%, moreover CHRO Magar Staph aureus showed higher recovery rate and specificity [87.5% and 98.9%; respectively] than Baird Parker medium [50.0% and 15.6%; respectively] during their detection. Sanitary evaluation of the supermarkets revealed that all of them were acceptable regarding prevention of bacterial growth parameter, although their mean score was only 55%. Avoidance of contamination parameter had the lowest mean score percent [15.6 +/- 27.3] with only about seven percent of the inspected supermarkets being acceptable. Although all recruited food handlers were apparently healthy, in few supermarkets, handlers were wearing clean light colored uniform [6.7%] and gloves [3.3%]. Despite the presence of hand washing basins in all supermarkets, few of them were provided with hot water [6.7%] and detergents were available in 30% of them. Improvement of the sanitary conditions under which meat products are handled in the supermarkets is a must, also, improving the selectivity of CHRO Magar Staph aureus in addition to both specificity and recovery rates of Baird Parker medium is recommended

CHROMagar staph aureus versus Baird Parker Agar for the detection and enumeration of Staphylococcus aureus from cheese samples

This paper evaluated a new chromogenic plate medium, CHROMagar Staph. aureus [CSAM], for the detection and enumeration of Staph. Aureus in cheese samples compared with the conventional Baird Parker agar medium [BPAM]. CSAM showed greater rates of recovery, specificity and efficiency reached 92.2%, 98.5% and 96.3% compared with those of BPAM, which were 83.5%, 49.2% and 61.6%. On the basis of its excellent recovery, the specificity, efficiency, ease of identification of the characteristic colored colonies, especially if they were of very low counts in mixed cultures, CSAM can be recommended as a routine planting medium for the detection and enumeration of Staph. Aureus from food