Australian Enterococcal Sepsis Outcome Programme, 2011

From 1 January to 31 December 2011, 29 institutions around Australia participated in the Australian Enterococcal Sepsis Outcome Programme (AESOP). The aim of AESOP 2011 was to determine the proportion of enterococcal bacteraemia isolates in Australia that are antimicrobial resistant, with particular emphasis on susceptibility to ampicillin and the glycopeptides, and to characterise the molecular epidemiology of the Enterococcus faecalis and E. faecium isolates. Of the 1,079 unique episodes of bacteraemia investigated, 95.8% were caused by either E. faecalis (61.0%) or E. faecium (34.8%). Ampicillin resistance was detected in 90.4% of E. faecium but not detected in E. faecalis. Using Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute breakpoints (CLSI), vancomycin non-susceptibility was reported in 0.6% and 31.4% of E. faecalis and E. faecium respectively and was predominately due to the acquisition of the vanB operon. Approximately 1 in 6 vanB E. faecium isolates however, had an minimum inhibitory concentration at or below the CLSI vancomycin susceptible breakpoint of ≤ 4 mg/L. Overall, 37% of E. faecium harboured vanA or vanB genes. Although molecular typing identified 126 E. faecalis pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) pulsotypes, more than 50% belonged to 2 pulsotypes that were isolated across Australia. E. faecium consisted of 73 PFGE pulsotypes from which 43 multilocus sequence types were identified. Almost 90% of the E. faecium were identified as clonal complex 17 clones, of which approximately half were characterised as sequence type 203, which was isolated Australia-wide. In conclusion, the AESOP 2011 has shown that although polyclonal, enterococcal bacteraemias in Australia are frequently caused by ampicillin-resistant vanB E. faecium.

DNA damage in rats after treatment with methylphenidate.

Methylphenidate (MPH) is a widely prescribed psychostimulant for the treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Recently, some studies have addressed the genotoxic potential of the MPH, but the results have been contradictory. Hence, the present study aimed to investigate the index of cerebral and peripheral DNA damage in young and adult rats after acute and chronic MPH exposure.

Australian Enterococcal Sepsis Outcome Programme annual report, 2013.

From 1 January to 31 December 2013, 26 institutions around Australia participated in the Australian Enterococcal Sepsis Outcome Programme (AESOP). The aim of AESOP 2013 was to determine the proportion of enterococcal bacteraemia isolates in Australia that are antimicrobial resistant, and to characterise the molecular epidemiology of the Enterococcus faecium isolates. Of the 826 unique episodes of bacteraemia investigated, 94.6% were caused by either E. faecalis (56.1%) or E. faecium (38.5%). Ampicillin resistance was not detected in E. faecalis but was detected in over 90% of E. faecium. Vancomycin non-susceptibility was reported in 0.2% and 40.9% of E. faecalis and E. faecium respectively and was predominately due to the acquisition of the vanB operon. Overall, 41.6% of E. faecium harboured vanA or vanB genes. The percentage of E. faecium bacteraemia isolates resistant to vancomycin in Australia is significantly higher than that seen in most European countries. E. faecium isolates consisted of 81 pulsed-field gel electrophoresis pulsotypes of which 72.3% were classified into 14 major pulsotypes containing five or more isolates. Multilocus sequence typing grouped the 14 major pulsotypes into clonal cluster 17, a major hospital-adapted polyclonal E. faecium cluster. Of the 2 predominant sequence types, ST203 (80 isolates) was identified across Australia and ST555 (40 isolates) was isolated primarily in the western and central regions (Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia) respectively. In conclusion, the AESOP 2013 has shown enterococcal bacteraemias in Australia are frequently caused by polyclonal ampicillin-resistant high-level gentamicin resistant vanB E. faecium, which have limited treatment options.