In-vitro anti-Mycobacterium tuberculosis effect of essential oil of Ocimum sanctum L. (Tulsi/Basil) leaves.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis has developed resistance to most of the available antimicrobials. Consequently, it is difficult to cure all the patients with tuberculosis and in future, the incidence of tuberculosis by drug resistant M. tuberculosis is likely to increase, worldwide. Therefore detection and development of new antimicrobials against M. tuberculosis is needed urgently. METHODS: Essential oil from the leaves of Ocimum sanctum L (Tulsi/Basil) was obtained by hydro distillation. The anti-mycobacterial effect of essential oil was evaluated against H37Rv and nine clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis in the BD BACTEC MGIT instrument using different volumes of essential oil. RESULTS: The essential oil inhibited the growth of H37Rv and all the nine clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis. The minimal inhibitory concentration of H37Rv was 3 µl (2.931 µg) and those of the clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis ranged from 1.5 µl (1.4655 µg) to 6 µl (5.862 µg). CONCLUSION: The Essential oil from the leaves of O. sanctum L.(Tulsi/Basil) has anti-M. tuberculosis effect in the in-vitro BD BACTEC MGIT method.

Clinical Evaluation of Rapid Diagnostic Test Kit for Scrub Typhus with Improved Performance.

Diagnosis of scrub typhus is challenging due to its more than twenty serotypes and the similar clinical symptoms with other acute febrile illnesses including leptospirosis, murine typhus and hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. Accuracy and rapidity of a diagnostic test to Orientia tsutsugamushi is an important step to diagnose this disease. To discriminate scrub typhus from other diseases, the improved ImmuneMed Scrub Typhus Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) was evaluated in Korea and Sri Lanka. The sensitivity at the base of each IgM and IgG indirect immunofluorescent assay (IFA) in Korean patients was 98.6% and 97.1%, and the specificity was 98.2% and 97.7% respectively. The sensitivity and specificity for retrospective diagnosis at the base of IFA in Sri Lanka was 92.1% and 96.1%. ImmuneMed RDT was not reactive to any serum from seventeen diseases including hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (n = 48), leptospirosis (n = 23), and murine typhus (n = 48). ImmuneMed RDT shows superior sensitivity (98.6% and 97.1%) compared with SD Bioline RDT (84.4% at IgM and 83.3% at IgG) in Korea. The retrospective diagnosis of ImmuneMed RDT exhibits 94.0% identity with enzyme-linked Immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using South India patient serum samples. These results suggest that this RDT can replace other diagnostic tests and is applicable for global diagnosis of scrub typhus. This rapid and accurate diagnosis will be beneficial for diagnosing and managing scrub typhus.

Antiobiotic resistance pattern of biofilm-forming uropathogens isolated from catheterised patients in Pondicherry, India.

BACKGROUND: Microbial biofilms pose a public health problem for persons requiring indwelling medical devices, as micro-organisms in biofilms are difficult to treat with antimicrobial agents. Thus the present study includes biofilm formation and antibiotic resistance pattern of uropathogens in hospitalised patients with catheter associated urinary tract infections (UTI). METHOD: This prospective analysis included 100 urine samples from catheterised patients with symptoms of UTI over a period of six months. Following identification, all isolates were subjected to antibiotic sensitivity using modified Kirby- Bauer disc diffusion method. Detection of biofilms was done by tube adherence method and Congo red agar method. RESULTS: E.coli was found to be the most frequently isolated uropathogen 70%, followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae 16%, Pseudomonas aeruginosa 4%, Acinetobacter spp 2%, coagulase negative Staphylococci 6% and Enterococci Spp 2%. In the current study 60% of strains were in vitro positive for biofilm production. Biofilm positive isolates showed 93.3%, 83.3%, 73.3% and 80% resistance to nalidixic acid, ampicillin, cephotaxime and cotrimoxazole, respectively, compared to 70%, 60%, 35%, 60% resistance showed by biofilm non-producers for the respective antibiotics. Approximately 80% of the biofilm producing strains showed multidrug resistant phenotype CONCLUSION: To conclude E.coli was the most frequent isolate, of which 63% were biofilm producers. The antibiotic susceptibility pattern in the present study showed quinolones were the least active drug against uropathogens. The uropathogens showed the highest sensitivity to carbapenems. The next best alternatives were aminoglycosides. Significant correlation between biofilm production and multi-drug resistance was observed in our study.

Comparison of different techniques of cataract surgery in bacterial contamination of the anterior chamber in diabetic and non-diabetic population.

AIM: To compare the bacterial contamination of the anterior chamber (AC) between manual small incision cataract surgery (SICS) and phacoemulsification (Phaco). To study the conjunctival flora and bacterial contamination of AC between well-controlled diabetics and non-diabetics. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Three hundred and sixty-eight patients were randomized to manual SICS and Phaco. Sixty-eight patients were excluded for not completing follow-up or for intraoperative complications like posterior capsule rupture. One hundred and fifty patients in each group were finally analyzed. Conjunctival swabs were taken on admission, after one day of topical ofloxacin and 15 min after 5% Povidone Iodine (PI) instillation. AC aspirate at the end of the surgery was also cultured. RESULTS: Fifty-six (18.66%) patients had positive conjunctival swab on admission which was reduced to 19 (6.33%) with topical ofloxacin and to five (1.66%) with instillation of 5% PI. AC contamination in both manual SICS and Phaco was 0.66%. The conjunctival flora in diabetics was similar to non-diabetics. None of the diabetics had AC contamination. Statistical analysis was performed by Chi-Square test (with Yates' correction). CONCLUSION: Statistically significant reduction in conjunctival flora was achieved with topical ofloxacin and 5% PI instillation and AC contamination in both manual SICS and Phaco was minimal (0.66%). Well-controlled diabetics who underwent cataract surgery in this study had similar conjunctival flora and AC contamination as non-diabetics.