Bartonella bacilliformis is a pathogen that is endemic in some areas of the Andean region of Peru, southern Ecuador and southern Colombia. This pathogen causes so-called Carrion's disease, a biphasic disease with acute and chronic phases, called Oroya fever and "Peruvian wart" respectively. In the absence or delay of antibiotic treatment, the mortality rate in the acute phase is up to 88%. The acute phase is characterised by fever and severe anaemia and may be followed, several weeks or months later, by the chronic eruptive phase due to endothelial cell proliferation. No animal reservoir has been identified to date and it is considered that healthy carriers act as a pathogen reservoir in endemic areas.

Bartonella bacilliformis is the etiological agent of Carrion’s disease, a neglected tropical poverty-linked illness. This infection is endemic of Andean regions and it is estimated that approximately 1.7 million of South Americans are at risk. This bacterium is a fastidious slow growing microorganism, which is difficult and cumbersome to isolate from clinical sources, thereby hindering the availability of phylogenetic relationship of clinical samples. The aim of this study was to perform Multi Locus Sequence Typing of B. bacilliformis directly in blood from patients diagnosed with Oroya fever during an outbreak in Northern Peru.

The implementation of molecular and serological tests has led a great decline in transfusion-transmitted infections. Unfortunately, however, this has only occurred in high-income countries, whereas the scenario is different in low-income countries and in rural areas of middle-income countries, in which access to serological tests is sometimes not feasible or limited by economic factors. These factors result in a population that is more vulnerable and at increased risk of infections. Although the search for relevant pathogens that can be transmitted by blood transfusion is implemented worldwide, various pathogens that can be present in blood bank donations remain under studied, as in the case of some bacteria such as Leptospira spp. and Bartonella spp. Bartonella species are re-emerging blood-borne organisms, capable of causing prolonged infections in animals and humans, while leptospiros...

Bartonella bacilliformis is the etiological agent of Carrion’s disease, a neglected tropical poverty-linked illness. This infection is endemic of Andean regions and it is estimated that approximately 1.7 million of South Americans are at risk. This bacterium is a fastidious slow growing microorganism, which is difficult and cumbersome to isolate from clinical sources, thereby hindering the availability of phylogenetic relationship of clinical samples. The aim of this study was to perform Multi Locus Sequence Typing of B. bacilliformis directly in blood from patients diagnosed with Oroya fever during an outbreak in Northern Peru.

Analysis of immune responses in Bartonella bacilliformis carriers are needed to understand acquisition of immunity to Carrion’s disease and may allow identifying biomarkers associated with bacterial infection and disease phases. Serum samples from 144 healthy subjects from 5 villages in the North of Peru collected in 2014 were analyzed. Four villages had a Carrion’s disease outbreak in 2013, and the other is a traditionally endemic area. Thirty cytokines, chemokines and growth factors were determined in sera by fluorescent bead-based quantitative suspension array technology, and analyzed in relation to available data on bacteremia quantified by RT-PCR, and IgM and IgG levels measured by ELISA against B. bacilliformis lysates. The presence of bacteremia was associated with low concentrations of HGF (p = 0.005), IL-15 (p = 0.002), IL-6 (p = 0.05), IP-10 (p = 0.008), MIG (p = 0.03) and ...

Carrion’s disease is a neglected tropical disease caused by Bartonella bacilliformis, a vector-borne pathogen restricted to the Andean valleys of Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. Carrion’s disease is a biphasic illness; in the acute phase the case-fatality rate can be as high as 88 %, related to high parasitemia, arriving to almost all erythrocytes,and secondary bacterial infections close related with the development of transient immunosuppression in the earlier illness phases. In addition, there are an undefined number of asymptomatic carriers that are reservoirs of the etiological agent of Carrion’s disease in endemic areas, they make take into account due to they are the perpetuators of this disease. The actual scenario of Carrion’s disease, in which the illness is arriving to new areas, due to the expansion of the vector’s distribution, suggests that now may be a crucial time to...

Bartonella bacilliformis is a facultative, intracellular, aerobic, Gram-negative coccobacillus causing the so-called Carrión's disease, a human infection endemic to specific areas mainly inhabited by low-income communities of Peru but also present in other Andean communities. It is considered a truly neglected tropical disease and is transmitted through the bite of female sandflies of the genus Lutzomyia.

The study was supported by the Programa Nacional de Innovaci?n para la Competitividad y Productividad (Inn?vate Per?), under the contract 117-PNICP-PIAP-2015. J.R. had a fellowship from the program I3, of the ISCIII [grant number: CES11/012]. C.G. had a PhD fellowship of the ISCIII [FI12/00561] and was recipient of a Canon Foundation Fellowship and a Small Grant from the Royal Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene [grant reference 000584]. MJP had a postdoctoral fellowship from CONCYTEC/FONDECYT [grant number: CG05-2013-FONDECYT].

The objective was to develop and characterise in vitro Bartonella bacilliformis antibiotic resistant mutants. Three B. bacilliformis strains were plated 35 or 40 times with azithromycin, chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin or rifampicin discs. Resistance-stability was assessed performing 5 serial passages without antibiotic pressure.

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) is a cytoplasmic enzyme with an important function in cell oxidative damage prevention. Erythrocytes have a predisposition towards oxidized environments due to their lack of mitochondria, giving G6PD a major role in its stability. G6PD deficiency (G6PDd) is the most common enzyme deficiency in humans; it affects approximately 400 million individuals worldwide. The overall G6PDd allele frequency across malaria endemic countries is estimated to be 8%, corresponding to approximately 220 million males and 133 million females. However, there are no reports on the prevalence of G6PDd in Andean communities where bartonellosis is prevalent.

The objective of this study was to determine the detection limit of three PCR approaches both from blood samples as well as from filter papers. Furthermore, the specificity was also accessed. We found that the best PCR approach studied was the amplification of the 16S rRNA from blood samples with a detection limit of 5 CFU/μL, the same when using dry blood in filter paper, although the obtained bands were not so evident. Present results highlight the need to develop more sensitive techniques able to be used both in rural areas and in the detection of asymptomatic carriers. From the tested PCRs, the 16S rRNA PCR-approach is the best to be used in the direct blood detection of acute cases of Carrion’s disease.

From its introduction in 1952 onwards, the clinical use of macrolides has been steadily increasing, both in human and veterinary medicine. Although initially designed to the treatment of Gram-positive microorganisms, this antimicrobial family has also been used to treat specific Gram-negative bacteria. Some of them, as azithromycin, are considered in the armamentarium against Enterobacteriaceae infections. However, the facility that this bacterial genus has to gain or develop mechanisms of antibiotic resistance may compromise the future usefulness of these antibiotics to fight against Enterobacteriaceae infections. The present review is focused on the mechanisms of macrolide resistance, currently described in Enterobacteriaceae.

JR was supported by Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico, Tecnológico y de Innovación Tecnológica (FONDECYT - Perú) within the “Proyecto de Mejoramiento y Ampliación de los Servicios del Sistema Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Tecnológica" [contract: 08-2019-FONDECYT-BM-INC-INV"].

A 22-day-old male was admitted with a 2-day history of irritability, dyspnea, jaundice, fever, and gastroin testinal bleeding. A thin blood smear was performed, which showed the presence of intraerythrocyte bacteria identified as Bartonella bacilliformis, and subsequently, the child was diagnosed with Carrion’s disease. The diagnosis was confirmed by specific polymerase chain reaction. The child was born in a non-endemic B. bacilliformis area and had not traveled to such an area before hospitalization. However, the mother was from an endemic B. bacilliformis area, and posterior physical examination showed the presence of a wart compatible with B. bacilliformis in semi-immune subjects.These data support vertical transmission of B. bacilliformis.

Bartonella bacilliformis is the etiological agent of Carrion’s disease, which is a neglected disease linked to people in low-socioeconomic populations in Andean valleys. An outbreak of B. bacilliformis was reported in a rural area of the Peruvian Amazon region. The aim of this study was to characterize this outbreak using molecular techniques.

To characterize two Achromobacter xylosoxidans recovered from 2 patients diagnosed with pertussis during a Bordetella pertussis surveillance program.

En el presente estudio, se analizaron los mecanismos de resistencia a nitrofuranos en 18 muestras cárnicas con Salmonella enterica (15 de pollo, 2 de ternera y 1 de cerdo) de mercados de Lima (Perú). Determinaron los serotipos de los aislamientos y la sensibilidad a furazolidona y nitrofurantoina (con y sin el inhibidor de bombas de expulsión Phenyl-Arginine-β-Naphthylamide [PAβN]), las mutaciones en los genes snrA y cnr por PCR y la transferabilidad de la resistencia por conjugación. Se identificaron 15 muestras con S. infantis (13 muestras de pollo), 2 con S. enteritidis y 1 con S. anatum. Todos los aislamientos, excepto S. anatum, fueron resistentes a ambos nitrofuranos (concentración mínima inhibidora [CMI] a furazolidona: 32-64 μg/mL, CMI a nitrofurantoina: 128-256 μg/mL), sin diferencias al adicionarse PAβN. Todos los aislamientos resistentes a nitrofuranos presentaron s...

This study was supported by Fondo Nacio-nal de Desarrollo Científico, Tecnológico y de Innovación Tecnológica (FONDECYT–Perú) within the ‘‘Proyecto de Mejoramiento y Ampliación de los Servicios del Sistema Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Tecnológica’’ [contract: 08-2019-FONDE-CYT-BM-INC-INV’’], and by the Programa Nacional de Innovación en Pesca y Acuicul-tura and the Universidad Científica del Sur through the project ‘‘Aves Marinas como Centinelas del Mar: Uso de video-cámaras/ GPS en piqueros para monitorear actividades pesqueras ilícitas en el Perú (PNIPA-PES-SIADE-PP-000169)’’.

ObjetivosCaracterizar los niveles y mecanismos de resistencia a β-lactámicos, quinolonas y macrólidos en 62 aislamientos de Escherichia coli causantes de bacteriemia en niños peruanos.MétodosSe determinaron las concentraciones inhibitorias mínimas (CIM) de ciprofloxacino, ácido nalidíxico (NAL) y azitromicina en presencia y ausencia de Phe-Arg-β-naftilamida. También se estableció la susceptibilidad a otros 14 agentes antimicrobianos. Se identificaron las β-lactamasas de espectro extendido (ESBL) y se determinaron las mutaciones en gyrA y parC, así como la presencia de mecanismos transferibles de resistencia a quinolonas (TMQR) y macrólidos (TMMR).ResultadosCincuenta aislados (80,6%) eran multirresistentes. Se observaron altas proporciones de resistencia a la ampicilina (93,5%), al NAL (66,1%) y al trimetoprim/sulfametoxazol (66,1%). Ningún aislado mostró resistencia a los...

The objective of the present study was to characterize Salmonella enterica serovar Infantis isolated from chicken meat determining their clonal relationships with S. Infantis isolated from children with diarrhea. Fifteen meat-recovered S. Infantis were analyzed. Susceptibility levels to 14 antibacterial agents, the presence of ESBL and that of inducible plasmid-mediated AmpC (i-pAmpC) were determined by phenotypical methods. The presence of ESBL and pAmpC was confirmed by PCR, and detected ESBL-encoding genes were sequenced and their transferability tested by conjugation. The presence of gyrA mutations as well as Class 1 integrons was determined by PCR. Clonal relationships were established by REP-PCR and RAPD. In addition, 25 clinical isolates of S. Infantis were included in clonality studies. All meat-recovered S. Infantis were MDR, showing resistance to ampicillin, nitrofurans and qui...