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A study of a hospital cluster of systemic candidosis using DNA typing methods

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2009

F. Romano ,
G. Ribera  and
M. Giuliano
F. Romano
Affiliation:
Institute of Hygiene, Medical School, University of Chieti ‘G. D'Annunzio’, Via dei Vestini, 66013 Chieti Scalo, Italy
G. Ribera
Affiliation:
Institute of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine, Medical School, University of Naples‘Federico II’, Italy
M. Giuliano
Affiliation:
Institute of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine, Medical School, University of Naples‘Federico II’, Italy
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Summary

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A cluster of disseminated Candida albicans infections, which occurred at the Intensive Care Unit of the Department of Heart Surgery, was investigated. Ten patients became infected and seven died. A wide microbiological surveillance was carried out. A total of 14 isolates of Candida albicans, four environmental and ten human, were examined using the Restriction Endonuclease Analysis (REA) of DNA. The isolates were classified into five different main groups. Five of the clinical isolates had the predominant pattern Ab and two more clinical strains were very closely related. Two more isolates from the emergency kit desk and the hands of a nurse gave the same REA profile. Such a relationship proved the epidemic nature of the cluster, with most of the patients cross-infected, and strongly suggested transmission on the hands of the staff as a determinant of the epidemic. Thus, REA has the potential to address many important questions in the study of nosocomial epidemiology of Candida albicans.

Type
Research Article
Information
Epidemiology & Infection , Volume 112 , Issue 2 , April 1994 , pp. 393 - 398
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

References

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