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Epidemiology of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in a cystic fibrosis rehabilitation centre

¹ Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Centre, University Hospital Ghent, ² CF-Rehabilitation Centre "Zeepreventorium", De Haan, and ³ Dept of Microbiology, University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium

CORRESPONDENCE: S. G. Van daele, Dept Paediatric Pulmonology, University Hospital Ghent, De Pintelaan 185, B9000 Ghent, Belgium. Fax: 32 92403861. E-mail: Sabine.Vandaele@UGent.be

Keywords: Cystic fibrosis, epidemiology, Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Received: April 28, 2004
Accepted October 13, 2004

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the leading pathogen in cystic fibrosis (CF) lungs. Since there is great concern about clonal spread in CF centres, this study examined the P. aeruginosa genotypes of colonised residents of a CF rehabilitation centre.

The isolates from the sputum of 76 P. aeruginosa-colonised patients were genotyped by fluorescent amplified fragment length polymorphism on arrival and departure.

A total of 71 different P. aeruginosa genotypes were identified from 749 isolates. Forty-nine patients had one genotype, 20 had two genotypes and seven had three. Forty-four patients had one or more genotypes in common with other patients (i.e. cluster types). Thirty-two patients were colonised by a single genotype not shared by any other patient. Thirty-eight of the 44 patients with a cluster type already carried their cluster type strain(s) on arrival. Patient-to-patient transmission could not be excluded for eight patients. For five of these, this infection was transient. None of the environmental P. aeruginosa isolates had a genotype similar to the patients' genotypes.

In summary, most patients were colonised by only one or two P. aeruginosa genotypes and the risk of persistent patient-to-patient transmission was low during the study period (4%). Most patients with a cluster-type strain carried this strain on arrival, indicating that transmission could have happened in the past. No environmental contamination could be established.

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