SGMHeadquarters MarlboroughHouse, Articles BasingstokeRoad, Spencers Wood,Reading RG7 l AG Clinicalmicrobiology:a new golden age? Tel. 011BgBB1800 StephenGillespie Fax 01 189885656 Whatmakes a pathogen? emailmtoday@sg m.ac.uk C,Anthony Hart & CraigWinstanley SGMWebsite http:./wwwsgm.ac.uk Theenemy within - hospital-acquired, antibiotic- Editor resistantbacteria Peter Hawkey Dr MerielJones Fungalinfections in the immunocompromised EditorialBoard MarcMendelson ProfessorDave Kelly 10 Dr LynneMacaskie Theuse of moleculartechniquesto detect antimicrobial ManagingEditor resistanceinclinical bacterial isolates Janet Hurst Ad C,Fluit&Franz-Josef Schmib. 1At+ Produc{ion Editor lanAtherton Howtechnology drives pathogen d iscovery PauI Kellam& Robin Assistant Editor and A, Weiss to Book Review Manager {n Microbiology before Pasteur M i lto n Wai n w ri g ht It, JaniceMeekings parasites - Gontributions Protozoan inthe UK causefor concern? These are alwayswelcome and TimMcHugh oo shouldbe addressedto the Editor (c/o SGM Headquarters). GopyDates Last dates for receiptof copy Regular Features at MarlborouohHouse are: SocietyNews oeneral uoDV Mav2001issue2Aoril November Counci IMeeting 24 August2O0l issue29 May Nominationsfor Members of Council 24 Advertisements (CRC) Above:The risein (pp.1 - 15) describe how NewYearsHonours 24 May2001 issue30April OA hospital-acouired i nfection. newmethods can speed up NewontheSGMwebsite z+ August200 1 issue 25 June Howserious is the ihreat to theirdetection, StaffNews OA Advertisements ourhealth care? NewGroup Conveners 24 Allenquiiesshould be sentto: Fungalinfections are Co urle sy Larry M ulve h i I | / Grants 25 Julie Lauder,NWH Sales Ltd, alsoa causefor concern, SciencePhoto Library SGMPrizes 26 TheArcadeChambers, particularlyinthe immuno- The Arcade,Aldershot, on compromised,as Marc Electionsto Grou p Comm ittees 200'l ZI Hampshire,GUll lEE Vol.28,Part 1, (pp, Tel.01 252 357000 February2OOl Mendelsonshows GoingPublic Fax0 1252 35700 1 10-13) and Tim McHugh PublicUnderstanding of Science Award report - [email protected] Inthis issue we celebrate coversthe risks from TheFungalVillage Mike Milner 28 the birthof the new Subscriptions 2OOl SGM protozoanparasites in the ScienceWorld-from medicinetomedia Chris Smith 30 NON-N/EMBERS ClinicalMicrobiology Group, UK(pp,22-23). M ic rob ioI ogy TodayS50.00 ConvenerStephen Gillespie Gradline (us$85.00) Pasteurdidnot startsthe ballrolling with an makeall NewInternational Masters Programme in Biotechnology 31 thesignificant N/EMBERS overviewof the science and discoveriesin Soapboxl 31 All members receiveMicrobiology microbiology, whatthenew group hopes As Milton Ajobin . .. SciencePolicy Today.ln addition they may take Wainwrightshows(pp. journals. to achieveon p.3. any of the Society's 19-21) manyimportant Meetings 34 Ordinary Member Theimportance of modern microbeswereknown MembershipSubscription (inc. Hotoffthe Press 36 M ic rob io I o gy Today) 5,40.00 moleculartechnioues in beforeh is fermentation (us$70.00) advancingour knowledge studieswere carried out. Reviews 40 MicrobiologySTO.0O (US$1 35.00) of pathogensand howthey Othertopicsinclude AddressBook 43 JGvS70.00(us$ 1 35.00) workis emohasized in howto (US$ tJsEM t7 O.OO 135.00) severalarticles. Tonv Hart havefun with fungi in the SGMStaff 44 Student or Retired Member northof England(pp, andCraig Winstanley MembershipSubscription (inc. 28-29),promoti g Diary 47 investigatewhy some n science M ic rob io I o g y Tod ay) 5.20.00 onthe radio(p,30) and a (us$33.00) microbesare harmfulon pp, Comment 48 previewofthe main M icrob i ol ogy 135.00 (US$65.00) 4-6, whilstPaul Kellam ano JGvS35.00 (US$65.00) RobinWeiss(pp.16-18) symposiumat the Society's tJsEM s7 O.OO(US$ 135.00) showhow new pathogens springmeeting on the Undergraduate Member threatsfrom Other ltems arebeing discovered. virusinfections MembershipSubscription (inc. (p.33).Last but not least on Letters MicrobiologyToda, S 10,00 PeterHawkeytakes a look p.39we welcomenews of Meetingpreview - Newchallenges to health:thethreat The viewsexpressed by atoneof the knottiest oursister organization inthe of virusinfection Geoff Smith contributorsare not necessarily problemsfacing clinical USA-the Societyfor 33 those of the Society;nor can the microbiologists- antibiotic- Introducing claimsof advertisersbe IndustrialMicrobiology. theSociety for I nd ustrial M icrobiology resistantbacteria - KristienMortelmans guaranteed. These 39 highlightinginfections articlesappear in O 2001 TheSocietyfor General additionto acquiredin hospital (pp, alltheregular Microbiology;ISSN: 1 464-0570 features reoods 7-9) andAd C.Fluit and and of Desig n : Grap h i cs Inte rnati o nal Societyactivities, Franz-JosefSchmitz l'T ffireprmr*ww m# ffim ffiwmm# ffiffiWmw$qeruW€w#mH W#mkry,mmwwsmm#reffifumDearEditor exception,citing O Dr C.C.Kbbler MA Manchesteras an We arewriting, on behalf FRCPFRCPath, Chair Dear Editor example,having three of the BritishSocietyfor British Societyfor medicallyqualified Whilelenjoyed the article by Don Cowan and Monica MedicalMycology, in MedicalMicrobiology individuals with research (M 27, 17 4- 177) in which responseto the articleby Grady ic ro b i o I ogy Today interestsin the fieldof Training Working Party TonyTrinciin the August theydiscussed panspermia, Ifeel that they might have medicalmycology, O Professor R.l. Hay 2000 issueof vour givenmore emphasis to the role played by Hoyle and Manchesteris certain ly DM FRCPFRCPath, magazine (M iirobiot ogy thisidea respectable (to an activemedical Wickramasingheinmaking Today27,115).We are Presidentof the British mycologyresearch theircredit they provide a referenceto theseauthors). delightedthat he has Societyfor Medical centreand indeed there AlthoughLord Kelvin is usually considered to have highlightedthe Microbiology areseven or so such thefirst to espouse the scientific view of importanceof fungito been academicfoci around the man,particularlythe panspermia(during the late 1 BBOs), itwas Hoyle and UK, but,regrettably, there increasingmorbidity and References Wickramasinghe,through their popular books and arefewer andfewer mortalitycausedby papers,who have made it atruly credible trainedmycologists in 1. Ainscough, S.,Barnes, scientific invasive f ungal infection, the servicesector. As R., Gant, V., Gransden, hypothesis. U nf ortu n ately, these two astro nome r- Theannual incidence of the articlestates, we mathematicianshave gone the way of manyheretics candidaemiain the UK is \7.R.,Holliman,R., areseeing increasing whosufferfrom being labelled as'mad'onlyto find now 11.2 oer 1000 beds McCrae,8., Perry,J., numbersof immuno- one-time (1 a figuresimilarto that Wilson,J., Schelenz,S. & themselveswritten out of the storywhen the ), compromisedpatients 'lunacies'are foundin the USwhere Kibbler, C.C. (2000).Blood transmutedinto orthodox science. Since as a consequenceof Candidasoeciesare the streaminfections due to wetalk aboutthe Darwin-Wallace theory of evolution, advancesin medicalcare, fourth commonestisolate Candi da speciesin England theoryof butthisis not being linked whynot the Hoyle-Wickramasinghe from bloodcultures (2). and \7ales: Data from the with the inf rastructu re panspermia? Similarly,the incidenceof ECMMepidemiological neededto managetheir invasiveaspergillosis has surveyof candidaemiain Bythe way,I am lookingforward to the daywhen infectiouscorn ol ications, increased1 4-fold overa Europe.Abstract. European their otherheresies become acceptable, namely that decadein Europe(3) and We welcomeProfessor Confederationof Medical influenzaand other diseases arrive on earthf rom rnsome groups, sucn as Trinci'scallto forge Mycology meeting, influencedby spaceand that evolution has been thoseundergoing strongerlinks with fellow Barcelona,November 2000. DNAoriginating f rom the samesource. allogeneicbone marrow societieswith an interest transplantation,the in mycology(although we 2. Fridkin, S.K. &Jarvis, Molecular O Milton Wainwright, Department of mortalityis in excessof wouldoointoutthatour $f.R. ( 1996).Epidemiology Biology and Biotechnology, University of Sheffield, 90 o/o(4), societywas renamed ofnosocomial fungal . Sheffield S102TN someyears ago and is infections. CI in M iro bio I Reu Thedecline of mycology, no longerknown as the 9,499-51L. whichforms the subiect BritishSocietyfor of ProfessorTrinci's- 3. Groll, A.H., Shah, P.M., Mycopathologyl)and, for article,also concerns us Mentzei, C., Schneider, example,we are in active greatly,We haveseen the M.,Just-Nuebling,G. & discussionswith the numbersof senior BritishMycological Huebner, K.(1996). mycologists i nvolved with Societyand other Trends in the postmortem servicework inthe UK organizationswith epidemiology of invasive graduallyfall over the last mycological i nterests. A fungal infections at a decade,such that there strongacademic base is university ho spital.J I nfut 33, are now fewerthan 10 essentialto sustainthe 23-32. left andthree of these are speciality,but we needto expectedto retirein the 4. Denning, D.W. & f inda wayof encouraging nexteight years (5), Stevens,D.A. (1990). scientistsinto the service ProfessorTrinci Antifungal and surgical sectorby providing makesthe pointthat treatment of invasive adequatetraining deoartmentsof programmesano a aspergillosisreview of 2,121 microbiology do notfeel suitablecareer structu re. published cases.Reu lnfea Dis the needto re-appoint Withoutthesea T2.rr47-r20r. mycologiststo theirstaff downwardsoiral is oncethey havegone, 5. Kibbler, C. & Hamilton, inevitable,butwe aimto However,he feelsthat