Several members of the THOP-GHTM research group attended the 33rd European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) between 15th and 18th of April, that took place as a hybrid event both online and in Copenhagen, Denmark.
This year´s edition of ECCMID had the participation of nearly 16,000 attendees from 146 countries and included symposiums, workshops, oral and poster presentations about the most recent findings in clinical microbiology and infectious diseases around the world.
GHTM participation at this congress, online and onsite, involved the GHTM coordinator, Miguel Viveiros, the GHTM-THOP group coordinator Isabel Couto, the THOP researchers Sofia Santos Costa, Liliana Rodrigues and Ana Armada and PhD students Catarina Morais, Marcelino Garrine and Carolina Ferreira, the last four with financial support provided by GHTM.
During the event, the GHTM members presented seven posters and one flash-poster presentation, about the work developed in GHTM/IHTM-NOVA. The studies presented covered topics from S. aureus molecular epidemiology in Mozambique to drug susceptibility, resistance mechanisms and drug repurposing in Staphylococcus, Escherichia coli, macrophage microbicidal responses against Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. and to recent advances in the diagnosis of leptospirosis and Mycoplasma genitalium.
Ana Armada presented a flash-poster on the antimicrobial mechanisms employed by macrophages exposed to pathogenic spirochetes responsible for Lyme borreliosis and a poster about the optimization and application of an indirect immunofluorescence test for the diagnosis of leptospirosis in conventional laboratories.
Sofia Santos Costa presented a poster about drug repurposing for identification of new efflux inhibitors and/or antibiofilm agents against Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis.
Liliana Rodrigues presented two posters about her work on the evaluation of the activity of repurposed drugs against E. coli and on the molecular diagnosis and characterization of drug resistance of M. genitalium.
Marcelino Garrine presented a poster on the antimicrobial resistance and molecular epidemiology of S. aureus causing bacteremia in children under 5 years-old in Mozambique.
Catarina Morais presented a poster about the assessment of chlorohexidine activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus pseudintermedius from skin and soft-tissue infections in companion animals.
Carolina Ferreira presented a poster about the occurrence and variability of norA and other main multidrug efflux pump determinants across the Staphylococcus genus.
The 34th ECCMID will take place in Barcelona between 27th and 30th of April 2024.