Ni. Leaves et Jz. Jordens, DEVELOPMENT OF A RIBOTYPING SCHEME FOR HAEMOPHILUS-INFLUENZAE TYPE-B, European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases, 13(12), 1994, pp. 1038-1045
Ribotyping and outer-membrane protein subtyping were used to character
ise 283 consecutive isolates of Haemophilus influenzae type b. These i
solates were obtained primarily from patients with invasive disease in
the UK and were received by the Public Health Laboratory Service Haem
ophilus Reference Laboratory prior to the implementation of Haemophilu
s influenzae serotype b vaccine in the UK. A subtyping scheme using th
e ribotyping method is suggested. Twenty-two ribotypes are described,
14 of which were found amongst the 283 clinical isolates characterised
in this study. In contrast, only four outer-membrane protein subtypes
were found amongst the 283 isolates. The ribotyping profiles were fur
ther used to estimate the relatedness of isolates. The resulting dendr
ogram suggested a population genetic structure different from that pre
viously described for Haemophilus influenzae type b using multi-locus
enzyme electrophoresis. This study shows the value of ribotyping as a
subtyping method for epidemiological studies of Haemophilus influenzae
type b. However, the further use of ribotyping for population genetic
structure analysis of Haemophilus influenzae type b may be misleading
and therefore inappropriate.