[Peculiarities of cosmonauts fauces flora]. / Osobennosti streptokokkovoi flory zava kosmonavtov.

In the course of the work done the specific and quantitative composition of the streptococcal autoflora of the fauces of the cosmonauts and the members of backup drew was investigated. In populations of isolated microorganisms the non-pathogenic streptococci have dominated among which S. salivarius prevailed. The same species has constantly been isolated in all the cosmonauts, pre- and postflight. Observation of the microflora state of the fauces at different stages of their professional activity made it possible to reveal the peculiarities of an individual dynamics in the number of nonpathogenic streptococci isolated from tampon depending on the participation of the test-subjects in the previous space missions. This is evidently a reflection of the effect of psychoemotional tension on the state of colonization resistance (CR) of the fauces mucosa and, as result of this, on its microflora. In turn, the occurrence of the individual species of conditionally-pathogenic streptococci after the mission points to a decrease in the CR under effect of unfavourable factors of space mission.

Reports on surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in individual countries.

In preparation for the meeting of the World Health Organization Working Group on Monitoring and Management of Bacterial Resistance to Antimicrobial Agents, representatives of 10 countries were asked to provide brief reports on the status of surveillance in their countries. Some gave extensive information on the methods used to test susceptibility of nosocomial pathogens to a variety of antibiotics; some described in detail the network of reference laboratories available to hospitals and individual clinicians for monitoring, identifying, and testing infectious agents; others chose to describe how their countries deal with the resistance of the most frequently isolated pathogen to a commonly used drug. The following summary of these reports shows the broad range of problems encountered and solutions undertaken by these 10 countries in dealing with the increasingly alarming problem of bacterial resistance to antimicrobial agents.

Carriage of antibiotic-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae by children in eastern and central Europe--a multicenter study with use of standardized methods.

With use of standardized techniques, a study of nasopharyngeal pneumococcal carriage in children in six Central and Eastern European cities was undertaken during the winter of 1993-1994. Nasopharyngeal swab specimens were collected from 954 children (predominantly under the age of 5 years) who were hospitalized or attending outpatient clinics or day-care centers. Susceptibility of isolates was determined by disk diffusion (on Mueller-Hinton agar with 5% sheep blood). Disks containing 1 micrograms of oxacillin were used to screen for susceptibility to penicillin G. Pneumococci were recovered from 258 (27.0%) of the 954 children. A variety of strains were recovered, and most penicillin-resistant strains were resistant to multiple agents. Minimum inhibitory concentrations of penicillin for selected resistant strains were 0.125-8 micrograms/mL. Resistance to penicillin was common in strains from Bulgaria, Romania, and Slovakia. Resistance to erythromycin and chloramphenicol occurred in Bulgarian and Romanian strains. Strains from Poland were all susceptible to penicillin, but many were resistant to tetracycline. Resistance to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole was common in Bulgarian, Romanian, and Slovak strains. Czech and Russian strains were predominantly susceptible to antibiotics. Most resistant strains were of serotypes 6, 14, 19, and 23.

[Microbiological monitoring of suppurative-septic hospital infections in newborn infants and puerperae]. / Mikrobiologicheskii monitoring za vnutribol'nichnymi gnoino-septicheskimi infektsiiami u novorozhdennykh i rodil'nits.

The microbiological monitoring of obstetric institutions revealed essential changes in the microbiological structure of hospital purulent septic infections in newborns and parturient women during the period of 1987-1992. An increase in the role of gram-negative microflora, mainly the representatives of the family Enterobacteriaceae, was registered. The specific proportion of gram-negative microorganisms in the etiology of hospital infections increased from 43.7% to 95.1% in newborn infants and from 33.3% to 61.3% in parturient women, which differently affected on the structure of the main nosological forms of these diseases.

[The epidemiological surveillance of hospital infections linked to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus]. / Epidemiologicheskii nadzor za vnutribol'nichnymi infektsiiami, sviazannymi s metitsillinrezistentnymi Staphylococcus aureus.

As revealed in the realization of the epidemiological surveillance of hospital infections caused by methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) in different types of hospital, MRSA strains causing purulent inflammatory diseases belong to different clones. The complex marking of MRSA made it possible to determine the presence of the same clone in different hospitals and to detect the outbreaks of hospital infections caused by different clones of MRSA in one hospital. It was found necessary to supplement the commercial international phage-typing set with pages permitting the detection of the specific system of restriction-modification in MRSA.

[The comparative characteristics of the vaginal microflora in parturient women who are carriers of Streptococcus serogroup B and in those who are free of carriage]. / Sravnitel'naia kharakteristika mikroflory vagalishcha rozhenits--nositelei streptokokkov serogruppy B i svobodnykh ot nositel'stva.

In the study of vaginal microflora in parturient women, carriers of group B streptococci (GBS), and those free of carriership a wide range of microorganisms, represented by aerobic and anaerobic species with the prevalence of lactobacteria in both groups of women, was isolated. The composition of vaginal microflora in parturient women did not depend on the presence of GBS in this biotope or on the level of colonization by lactobacteria. The colonization resistance (CR) of the vaginal mucosa had essential influence of the level of carriership with respect to GBS and a number of representatives of the symbiotic microflora of this locus. In the majority of cases GBS were isolated from parturient women with low CR.

[Assessment of the effectiveness of noninvasive immunoenzyme method in the detection of Staphylococcus aureus alpha-hemolysin in the washings of nasal mucosa and saliva of healthy individuals]. / Otsenka éffektivnosti neinvazivnogo immunofermentnogo metoda obnaruzheniia alfa-gemolizina Staphylococcus aureus v smyvakh so slizistoi polosti nosa i v sliune u zdorovykh individov.

The efficacies of detection of S. aureus by the bacteriologic method and enzyme immunoassay test system based on F(ab)2 fragments of purified antistaphylococcal antibodies were compared. Washings off the nasal mucosa and salivary samples from 20 normal subjects (medical staff) were examined. The number of findings of S. aureus by the detection of its a-hemotoxin in primary samples was much higher and the time of analysis two times shorter with enzyme immunoassay.

[Use of unified methods in microbiologic monitoring of penicillin resistance in Pneumococcus]. / Primenenie unifitsirovannykh metodov pri mikrobiologicheskom monitoringe penitsillinorezistentnosti pnevmokokkov.

The microbiological surveillance of pneumococci according to the Protocols for the International Surveillance of Pneumococci Resistant to Penicillin and Other Antimicrobial Agents developed by Prof. M. Jacobs (USA) and Prof. P. Appelbaum (USA) made it possible for the first time in Russia to detect the strains with moderate resistance to penicillin. It is necessary to revise the current Russian recommendations for the laboratory diagnosis of pneumococcal infection and the determination of antibiotic susceptibility so as to participate in the united programme of the International Surveillance of Penicillin Resistance in Streptococcus pneumoniae.

[The approval of an immunoenzyme test system based on the F(ab)2 fragments of staphylococcal antibodies for determining staphylococcal alpha-hemolysin]. / Aprobatsiia immunofermentnoi test-sistemy na osnove F(ab)2-fragmentov protivostafilokokkovykh antitel dlia opredeleniia stafilokokkocogo al'fa-gemolizina.

In the approbation of the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) system on the basis of F(ab)2 fragments of antistaphylococcal antibodies on 307 cultures of the representatives of the genera Staphylococcus, Pseudomonas and Proteus high sensitivity, specificity and effectiveness of ELISA for the quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the alpha-hemolytic activity of S.aureus were established. The ELISA system has made it possible to additionally detect alpha-hemolysin in 62% of S.aureus strains classified with as nontoxigenic strains using hemolysis test in Petri dishes. The sensitivity limit of this method is 0.0005 binding units or 1.0 ng in terms of protein content. The use of the ELISA system may be recommended for the study of the toxigenic properties of staphylococci.

[Hospital infection morbidity in the Russian Federation]. / Zabolevaemost' vnutribol'nichnymi infektsiiami v Rossiiskoi Federatsii.

The epidemiological analysis of hospital infection morbidity in Russia at the period of 1990-1991 made it possible to establish the occurrence of hospital infections among hospitalized patients throughout the country. The data on the structure of registered hospital infections were obtained. These data indicate that the prevalent part of hospital infections were neonatal purulent septic infections and postoperative infections; among the former, ophthalmic infections and infections of the skin and subcutaneous fat prevailed. The outbreaks of total morbidity in hospital infections did not exceed 1%, while the total morbidity in enteric infections was 10% in the whole of Russia and 30% in the territories where outbreaks of enteric infections were registered.

[Drug resistance of hospital strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae and their role in the rise of intrahospital infections]. / Lekarstvennaia ustoichivost' gospital'nykh shtammov Klebsiella pneumoniae i ikh rol' v vozniknovenii vnutribol'nichnykh infektsii.

Microbiological monitoring of intrahospital infections in obstetric and surgical institutions revealed the role of Klebsiella pneumoniae in the etiology of purulent septic diseases in various groups of the patients. The level and spectra of resistance in the pathogens were fixed with respect to 17 drugs. It was shown that the clinical polyresistant strains of K. pneumoniae including those resistant to at least 5 antibiotics were more frequent in the patients of the surgical departments than in the newborns and puerpera. The isolates of K. pneumoniae responsible for the intrahospital complications in the surgical patients as compared to those in the newborns and puerpera were mainly resistant to ampicillin, carbenicillin, cephalothin, gentamicin and tobramycin.

[The production of toxic shock syndrome toxins and enterotoxins by Staphylococcus aureus]. / Produktsiia toksinov sindroma toksicheskogo shoka i énterotoksinov Staphlyococcus aureus.

The production of toxins of the toxic shock syndrome and enterotoxins by S. aureus of clinical origin was studied by means of commercial standard antisera and standard toxins. The study revealed that among 511 strains isolated in Russia toxigenic ones constituted 41%, and among 592 strains isolated in Czechia toxigenic ones constituted 63%. The capacity for producing toxins may be used as an epidemiological marker.