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Background The current public health problem is the increasing bacterial resistance to antibiotics. Microorganisms isolated from infections are more often non-susceptible to most available drugs. The microorganisms producing resistance mechanisms have been classified as so called alert pathogens. Methods We performed a total number of 3810 tests of bronchoalveolar lavage and sputum of patients hospitalized for respiratory diseases at the Department of Pulmonary Diseases and Tuberculosis at Public Clinical Hospital No 3 in Zabrze (Poland). The research was performed in the microbiological laboratory of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology in Zabrze, Medical University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. The analysis included Gram-positive and Gram-negative alert species strains. Results In the period of five years, 144 strains of alert microorganisms have been isolated. The percentage of Gramnegative alert pathogens producing ESBL and KPC increased. MRSA, Steptococcus pneumoniae and Streptococcus pyogenes have been found to be the most often present among Gram-positive alert microorganisms. The lowest value of cultured alert pathogens (3.9%) was noted in 2008, whereas the highest (16.5%) in 2011. Gram-positive alert microorganisms showed resistance to macrolides and lincosamides, however, Gram-negative alert microorganisms showed the highest percentage of resistance to penicillins, penicillins with inhibitors and cephalosporins. Conclusions Our work has shown that over the period 2008–2012 an increased percentage of Gramnegative and Gram-positive alert microorganisms was observed.

Soft liner materials in oral cavity environments are easily colonized both by fungi and dental plaque. These factors are the cause of mucosal infections. The microorganism that most frequently colonizes soft liner materials is Candida albicans. Colonization occurs on the surface of materials and within materials. A solution to this problem might involve modification of soft liner materials with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). In this article, we present results showing the antifungal efficacy of silicone soft lining materials modified with AgNPs. The modification process was conducted by dissolving both material components (base and catalyst) in a colloidal solution of AgNPs and evaporating the solvent. Composites with various AgNP concentrations (10, 20, 40, 80, 120 and 200 ppm) were examined. The in vitro antifungal efficacy (AFE) of composite samples was 16.3% to 52.5%.