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COMMUNITY REFERENCE LABORATORY – ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE
 
 
 
Irina Codita
 
Nosocomial Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance National Reference Laboratory, head
National Institute of Research
Development for Microbiology and Immunology "Cantacuzino" Bucharest
Splaiul Independentei 103
Sector V, CP 1-525
050096 Bucharest
Romania

 

0040 21 318 44 10/11 ext. 5226
0040 21 318 44 14 (fax)
 
 
Competences
 

Cantacuzino Institute is the main technical and scientific medical unit within the Ministry of Health involved in the development and application of programmes aiming at preventing and controlling infectious diseases.

The National Reference Laboratory for Nosocomial Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance (NRL-NIRAB) is involved in specialised microbiology expertise of nosocomial pathogens and antimicrobial resistance, acting in collaboration with the national reference laboratories for Bacterial Respiratory Infections (streptococci, enterococci, pneumococci, meningococci, corynebacterium, pertussis, haemophilus), Bacterial Enteric Infections (Salmonella, Shigella, E. coli, other fermentative GNB, Vibrio) and with the Molecular microbiology laboratory within the National Institute of Research-Development for Microbiology and Immunology "Cantacuzino", Bucharest.
 
The NRL-NIRAB is hosting:
  • The National Reference Centre for Staphylococci
  • The National Reference Centre for Pseudomonas
Participation in national programs:
  • National program for nosocomial infections surveillance
  • National program for antimicrobial resistance surveillance
Participation in international programs:
  • EARSS
  • ENTERNET (Molecular microbiology laboratory and Bacterial enteric infections laboratory)
  • DIPNET (Molecular microbiology laboratory and Bacterial respiratory infections laboratory)
  • Research activities in internal and external programs, including participation in Pasteur Institutes network, as the NIRDMI "Cantacuzino" is a member of this network.
 
 
Technical skills:

 
Phenotypical:
  • Pathogens identification by conventional and/or authomatic methods (VITEK-2)
  • AST: disc diffusion, broth and/or solid phase MIC, E-tests (OSIRIS AST reader  available)
  • In vivo pathogenity tests
  • Phagetyping
  • Serotyping
  • ESBL, AmpC, MBL etc.
 
Molecular:
  • mec A
  • PFGE typing
  • Spa typing for S. aureus
  • S. aureus virulence determinants
  • Beta-lactamase study in collaboration with the molecular microbiology laboratory
  • Know-how available for other molecular techniques
 
 
 
Publications:
 
  1. Bolohan, S., Codita, I., 2002 – Quality control in the microbiology laboratory (Rom. - Controlul de calitate in laboratorul de microbiologie) - Bacteriologia virusologia parazitologia epidemiologia – 2002, 47, 1-2, 17-24 (ISSN 1220 – 3696)
2003:
  1. Codita, I., Grigore, L., 2003 – Evaluation of agglutination rapid tests for S. aureus identification (Rom. - Evaluarea testelor rapide utilizand reactivi aglutinanti pentru identificarea S. aureus) – Bacteriologia, virusologia, parazitologia epidemiologia, 2003, 48, 4, 209, 212 (ISSN 1220 – 3696)
2005:
  1. Crina Stavaru, Viorica Dumitrescu, Daniela Lemeni, Ion Bogdan Teodor Georgescu, Irina Codita, Dorel Lucian Radu, 2006 – Microbiological and Immunological Study of Staphylococcus Vaccine Effects in Periodontitis – Roum. Arch. Microbiol. Immunol., 2005, 64, 1-4, 11-20 (ISSN 1222-3891)
2006:
  1. Friedrich, A., Witte, W., Harmsen, D., de Lencastre, H., Hryniewicz, Scheres, W. J., Westh, H. on behalf of the SeqNet.org participants (Corporate author: ...Irina Codita – Bucharest, Romania...) - SeqNet.org: a European laboratory network for sequence-based typing of microbial pathogens – Eurosurveillance 2006, 11, 1 (ISSN 1560-7917 electronic)
  2. Mihaela Popa, Irina Codita, 2006 – MRSA molecular typing methods (Rom.: Metode de tipizare moleculara a MRSA) – Bacteriologia, virusologia, parazitologia, 2006, 1-2 (ISSN 1220 – 3696)
  3. M. De Kraker, N van de Sande-Bruisma, on behalf of all EARSS participants (Corporate author: ...Romania – I. Codita) – Trends in antimicrobial resistance in Europe: update of EARSS results – 2007, 12, 3 (ISSN 1560-7917 electronic)
 
 
Communications:
 
 
2003:
  1. Irina Codita, Monica Straut, Mihaela Popa, Olga Mihaela Dorobat, Irina Nistor, Nicoleta Popescu, Raluca Papagheorghe, Mihaela Ghita, Tatiana Turcu, 2003 - Common FIGE profile in 3 multidrug resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from bloodcultures from two different cities in Romania (1997 – 2001) – poster, European Conference of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Glasgow, 2003, May.
  2. Irina Codita, Alexandru Rafila, Adriana Pistol, Carmen Balotescu, Vasilica Ungureanu, Dorina Tatu-Chitoiu, Marina Pana, Maria Ghita, Mihaela Popa and participants from 12 hospital laboratories – Progress in establishing an integrated antimicrobial resistance surveillance system in Romania and EARSS participation first results – poster, 3rd Balkan Microbiology Society Conference – Istanbul, 2003, September.
2005:
  1. Irina Codita, Carmen Balotescu, Anca Israil, Mihaela Popa, Dorina Tatu-Chitoiu, Vasilica Ungureanu, Marina Pana, Mihaela Ghita and hospital participant laboratories, 2005 - Romania and EARSS. A four years perspective – poster, Microbiologia Balkanica 2005, IVth Balkan Conference of Microbiology, Bucharest, November 23-26, 2005.
  2. Irina Codita, Viorica Dumitrescu, Mihaela Popa, 2005 - Identification of coagulase negative staphylococci (CNS) isolated from invasive infections received at the National Reference Centre for Staphylococcus in 2005 – poster, Microbiologia Balkanica 2005, IVth Balkan Conference of Microbiology, Bucharest, November 23-26, 2005.
  3. Irina Codita, 2005 - Antimicrobial resistance surveillance in Romania and recent progress regarding antimicrobial resistance detection/epidemiological investigation – communication, Microbiologia Balkanica 2005, IVth Balkan Conference of Microbiology, Bucharest, November 23-26, 2005.
  4. Mihaela Popa, Irina Codita, Silvia Mariana Cretoiu, Monica Straut, Marietta Surdeanu and EARSS participant laboratories – Detection of Methicillin resistance in Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from invasive infections by Cefoxitin Disk versus Oxacillin Disk – poster, Microbiologia Balkanica 2005, IVth Balkan Conference of Microbiology, Bucharest, November 23-26, 2005.
  5. Mihaela Popa, Irina Codita, Marietta Surdeanu, Monica Straut, Silvia-Mariana Cretoiu and M. Negut – Rapid detection of Staphylococcus aureus bearer enterotoxine B gene from food in biological terrorism attack – poster, Microbiologia Balkanica 2005, IVth Balkan Conference of Microbiology, Bucharest, November 23-26, 2005.
  6. Anca Israil, Rodica Dorin, Olguta Dracea, Carmen Balotescu, Irina Codita, Margareta Mazilu, Denisa Mihai, Vasilica Ungureanu, Viorica Dumitrescu, Dorina Tatu-Chitoiu, Lucia Ciudin, Dana Caplan, Angela Diaconescu, Daniela Lemeni, Ana - Maria Petrescu, Elena Chersulick, Mihai Croitoru – Modern microbial culture collection for biomedical and biotechnological use in accordance with European legislation – poster, Microbiologia Balkanica 2005, IVth Balkan Conference of Microbiology, Bucharest, November 23-26, 2005.
2006:
  1. Irina Codita, Carmen Balotescu, Anca Michaela Israil, Mihaela Popa, Dorina Tatu-Chitoiu, Vasilica Ungureanu, Marina Pana, Maria Ghita and hospital participant laboratories, 2006 - Antimicrobial resistance trends in invasive strains of S. aureus, E. coli, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Enterococcus spp. in Romania – a four years participation in the EARSS - poster, 16th ECCMID, Nice, 1 – 4 Avril, 2006.
  2. Mihaela Popa, Irina Codita, Marieta Surdeanu, Monica Straut, Silvia-Mariana Cretoiu, Negut, M., 2006 - Detection of Enterotoxine B producing Staphylococcus aureus directly from milk – poster, 16th ECCMID, Nice, 1 – 4 Avril, 2006.
  3. Irina Codita, Mihaela Popa, Monica Straut, Codruta Usein, 2006 - Recent progress in Romanian reference laboratory capacities for the investigation of S. aureus nosocomial infections with European support – poster, 2nd FEMS Congress of European Microbiologists, Madrid, 4-8 July, 2006.
  4. Mihaela Popa, Irina Codita, Monica Straut, Marietta Surdeanu, Silvia Cretoiu, 2006 - Using PFGE to learn MRSA strains story in Bucharest hospitals – poster, 2nd FEMS Congress of European Microbiologists, Madrid, 4-8 July, 2006.
2007:
  1. Irina Codita, Mihaela 0prea, Ana-Maria Petrescu, Dorina Tatu-Chitoiu, Vasilica Ungureanu, Maria Ghita, Daniela Lemeni, Rodica Dorin, Dana Brehar- Cioflec, Angela Romaniuc and microbiologists from Arad, Bucuresti, Craiova, Galati, Iasi, Sibiu, Timisoara and Suceava hospital laboratories - Antimicrobial resistance in strains isolated in 2005 by Romanian National Sentinel System for Nosocomial Infections Surveillance. Poster, submitted for 17th ECCMID, Muenich, Germany, 31 March-3 April, 2007.
  2. Irina Codita, Mihaela Oprea, Cerasela Dragomirescu and microbiologists from Arad, Bucuresti, Craiova, Galati, Iasi, Sibiu, Timisoara and Suceava hospital laboratories - Characterization of S. aureus strains isolated from nosocomial infection suspected cases in 2005. Poster, submitted for 17th ECCMID, Muenich, Germany, 31 March-3 April, 2007.
  3. Mariana Carmen Balotescu, Irina Codita, Adriana Radulescu, Simona Radu, Florea, L., 2007 – Microbiological, biological and clinical evaluation of a new immunostimulatory strategy applied in the treatment of periodontal diseases. Poster, submitted for 17th ECCMID, Muenich, Germany, 31 March-3 April, 2007.
  4. Mariana Carmen Balotescu, Ionica, E., Irina Codita – Relevance of A 2 phospholipases and mathrix metallproteases in the assessment of the inflammatory process evolution in periodontal disease. Poster, submitted for 17th ECCMID, Muenich, Germany, 31 March – 3 April, 2007.