Infant Carriers Research Articles

ANTEPARTUM SURVEY FOR ENTEROPATHOGENIC ESCHERICHIA COLI. DETECTION BY CULTURAL AND FLUORESCENT ANTIBODY METHODS.

Hospital nursery epidemics of diarrhea associated with enteropathogenic Escherichia coli are now well documented. These organisms have been detected in air, dust, and fomites within the hospital environment. Environmental contamination may result from the presence of asymptomatic adult and infant carriers in the absence of overt illness in the nurseries. 1 Cooper et al 2 in 1957 reported the presence of enteropathogenic E coli in 46 of 361 mothers (12.7%) during their hospital confinement and delivery. Ocklitz and Schmidt 3 in 1957 found enteropathogenic E coli in 5 of 111 mothers attending a prenatal clinic. In one case, the same serotype was isolated from the mother antenatally and the infant after delivery. The present study was prompted by a recent outbreak of diarrhea in the premature unit of the Marion County General Hospital associated with serotype 0111:B4. The index patient was a premature infant 48 hours of age, with a

Immunofluorescence in Diagnostic Bacteriology

For epidemiologic and clinical control of infantile diarrhea caused by enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (E.E.C.), rapid detection and identification of the etiologic serotype is essential. 1,11 Conventional procedures for even presumptive identification of the organisms take from 24 to 48 hours at best. Moreover, since a specific selective culture medium for isolation of E.E.C. is not available, 2 it is difficult to select E.E.C. colonies for serotyping from mixtures of enteric organisms existing in infant carriers, adult carriers, or treated infants. Fluorescent antibody techniques appeared to be ideally suited for an approach to the solution of these problems. A previous report from this laboratory 3 described the use of fluorescein-labeled antibodies for identifying E. coli 0127:B 8 in fecal smears from an outbreak of diarrhea caused by that organism. Thomason et al. 4 confirmed these results by utilizing polyvalent-labeled antisera representing 9 E.E.C. serotypes to identify E. coli 0127: B 8

Staphylococci in a community hospital. II. Nasal-carrier rates of newborn babies and their mothers.

FEW studies of the staphylococcal-carrier rate of newborn babies have been carried out. Rountree and Barbour1 reported from Australia in 1950 that 90 per cent of newborn infants could become heavy nasal carriers within seven days of birth. Barber and her associates2 reported from England in 1953 that 90 per cent of the infant carriers harbored penicillin-resistant staphylococci. With additional studies Barber and Burston3 recently reported that 92 per cent of the 62 babies born in a maternity unit between January and March, 1955, left the hospital carrying Staphylococcus aureus in their anterior nares. The carrier rate of their mothers . . .