Abstract The 10-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV10) has been included in Bulgarian Childhood Immunization Program since 2010. This study aimed to assess serotype distribution and antimicrobial resistance of 198 invasive and non-invasive Streptococcus pneumoniae strains that had been isolated in Bulgaria during 2011-2016 from patients with invasive (IPD) and non-invasive (NIPD) pneumococcal diseases. The most common invasive serotypes were 3 (10.1%), 19F (4.0%), and 7F (3.0%). A significant decrease in the proportion of invasive vaccine types (VTs) from 64.2% to 35.2% was found in comparison with pre-vaccine era. The most common serotypes among middle ear fluids were 3, 19A and 19F (5.6% each), and VTs fell down from 66.4% to 40.0% in post-PCV10 period. Among respiratory isolates, the most prevalent serotypes were some emergent serotypes such as 15A/B/C (5.0%), 19A, and 6C (4.0% each). VTs decreased significantly (16.3%) among vaccinated children compared to unvaccinated children and adults (44.0%). Two non-VTs (19A and 6C) have increased significantly more (p < 0.05) in vaccinated children than in unvaccinated patients. The rates of antibiotic nonsusceptible S. pneumoniae in Bulgaria remained high in post-PCV10 era. Among all source of isolates, antimicrobial nonsusceptibility rates were: oral penicillin - 46.5%, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole - 45.4%, erythromycin - 43.9%, tetracycline - 37.4%, and multidrug-resistance (MDR) was 44%. The most common MDR serotypes were 19F, 19A, 6A/C, 15A/B/C and 23A. Our results proved that PCV10 vaccination substantially reduced VTs pneumococcal IPD and NIPD. There has been a shift in the distribution of S. pneumoniae serotypes mostly in vaccinated children but also in the whole population and strong serotype-specific antibiotic resistance was observed after vaccine implementation. Therefore, it is important to continue monitoring serotype changes and pneumococcal resistance among all patient ages in addition to aid in determining the long-term effectiveness of PCV10 interventions.

Abstract Objectives To evaluate the prevalence of some virulence genes among 510 clinical Enterococcus spp. isolates and to assess the association of those genes with the species, infection site, and patient group (inpatients/outpatients). Methods Adhesins genes (aggregation substances agg and asa1 of Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium, respectively), enterococcal surface protein (esp), endocarditis-specific antigen A (efaA), collagen-binding proteins (ace/acm)); invasins (hyaluronidase (hyl) and gelatinase (gelE)); cytotoxines (activation of cytolysin (cylA) in E. faecalis); and modulators of the host immunity and inflammation (enhanced expression pheromone (eep) in E. faecalis) were detected by polymerase chain reaction. Results The overall prevalence was: esp – 44.3%, agg/asa1 – 38.4%, ace/acm – 64.3%, efaA – 85.9%, eep – 69.4%, gelE – 64.3%, hyl – 25.1%, and cylA – 47.1%. E. faecalis isolates had significantly higher frequency of adhesin genes (esp and agg/asa1) and gelatinase in comparison to E. faecium. Multiple virulence genes in E. faecalis were significantly more prevalent than in E. faecium isolates. Domination of E. faecium with or without only one gene compared to the isolates of E. faecalis were found. Enterococcus spp. isolates obtained from outpatients compared to inpatients isolates had significantly higher frequency of agg/asa1, eep, gelE and cylA. Some adhesins genes (esp, agg/asa1 and efaA) had higher prevalence among the non-invasive Enterococcus spp. isolates compared to those causing invasive bacteremia, while ace/acm revealed higher dissemination in isolates causing invasive infections compared to non-invasive isolates. Conclusion Most E. faecalis attaches to abiotic surfaces in hospital environment, which correlates with higher prevalence of gene encoding for virulence factors involved in biofilm formation, such as enterococcal surface protein, aggregation substance, and gelatinase. The intestinal tract is an important reservoir for opportunistic enterococcal pathogens and allows them to access infectious sites through different virulence factors, demonstrated in outpatient isolates in this study.

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is the most common cause of vaginal discharge in women of reproductive age. The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of BV in Bulgarian pregnant and nonpregnant women from several age ranges and to compare three different laboratory methods for Gardnerella vaginalis detection in patents suffering from BV. METHODS: Between September 2011 and June 2012, 809 women of 16-40 years of age separated in two major groups: nonpregnant - 469 (355 with and 114 without symptoms) and pregnant - 340 (213 and 127 respectively) were enrolled for the study. The women underwent three different laboratory tests simultaneously: scoring of Gram staining of vaginal smear, culture, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay for G. vaginalis. RESULTS: The microscopic method detected high frequency of BV in symptomatic (57%) whereas only a minority of asymptomatic subjects (14%) were detected. G. vaginalisassociated BV was diagnosed in approximately equal proportions when evaluated with PCR and microscopic method for both pregnant and nonpregnant women. The comparative analysis of microscopic evaluation, culture and PCR assays demonstrated greater concurrence (about 90%) between Gram staining and PCR detection for BV, than both methods compared to culture. The combination of microscopy and PCR turned out to be very reliable and repeatable for detecting G. vaginalis-associated BV. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first comparative investigation on the epidemiology of G. vaginalisassociated BV in Bulgaria. The established highest frequency in the young Bulgarian women (21-30 years) is alarming and should be considered in prophylaxis and reproductive programmes.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of some virulence genes among 202 Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates from cystic fibrosis (CF) patients (n=42) and non-CF in-patients (n=160) and to analyze the values according to the patient groups, infection localization and antimicrobial resistance. The following frequencies in all studied strains were established: algD (encoding GDP-mannose 6-dehydrogenase AlgD) - 91.1%, pilB (type IV fimbrial biogenesis protein PilB) - 23.8%, nan1 (neuraminidase) - 21.3%, lasB (elastase LasB) - 100%, plcH (haemolytic phospholipase C precursor) - 91.6%, exoS (exoenzyme S) - 62.4%, and exoU (exoenzyme U) - 30.2%. The prevalence of nan1 was significantly higher (P<0.01) in CF isolates (38.1%) than that in non-CF isolates (16.9%). The nan1-positive CF strains were cultured from 16 patients with recurrent lung exacerbations. This study revealed a statistically significant difference (P<0.01) between the portion of multidrug-resistant (MDR) nosocomial P. aeruginosa strains containing a large number (≥5) of virulence genes (38.1%) and the respective part of non-MDR isolates (17.6%). Moreover, pilB, exoU and nan1 manifested a higher spread (P<0.001) among MDR than in non-MDR strains (respectively, 39.1% vs. 13.2%; 40.2% vs. 17.7% and 26.1% vs. 4.4%). In conclusion, the dissemination of nan1 in CF isolates was moderate and correlated with the lower proportion of patients with lung exacerbations. The molecular-genetic detection of this gene may be used as an indirect measure of CF pulmonary disease evolution. Simultaneous determination of virulence factors and antimicrobial resistance is the contemporary approach for examination of the microbiological aspects of infections caused by P. aeruginosa.