 |
|
Nursery Outbreak of Staphylococcal Scalded Skin SyndromeRapid Identification of the Epidemic Bacterial Strain
Bascom F. Anthony, MD;
Diane M. Giuliano, RN;
William Oh, MD
Am J Dis Child. 1972;124(1):41-44.
Abstract
Within a seven-day period, three infants born at Harbor General Hospital were readmitted at ages 5 to 13 days with signs of the staphylococcal scalded skin syndrome (two with toxic epidermal necrolysis and one with bullous impetigo). From all three infants, isolates of Staphylococcus aureus demonstrated bacteriocin-like activity against Staphylococcus 502A. A nurse in the newborn area was found to be a persistent nasal carrier of a Staphylococcus with bacteriocin-like activity. All strains with this activity were subsequently phage-typed as type 71. Because she was a possible source of the outbreak, the nurse-carrier was removed from the nursery and no subsequent cases occurred. The use of bacteriocin-like activity proved a simple and reliable marker of the epidemic staphylococcal strain in screening staphylococci from cases and carriers and in management of the outbreak.
Author Affiliations
Torrance, Calif
From the Department of Pediatrics, Harbor General Hospital, UCLA School of Medicine (Drs. Anthony and Oh) and the Office of the Infection Control Nurse (Mrs. Giuliano), Harbor General Hospital, Torrance, Calif.
Footnotes
Received for publication Dec 20, 1971; accepted March 3, 1972.
Reprint requests to Harbor General Hospital, Torrance, Calif 90509 (Dr. Anthony).
 CiteULike  Connotea  Delicious  Digg  Facebook  Reddit  Technorati  Twitter
What's this?
THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES
Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis Following Measles Vaccination
Shoss and Rayhanzadeh
Arch Dermatol 1974;110:766-770.
ABSTRACT
|
