G. Urwin et al., CLONAL ANALYSIS OF HAEMOPHILUS-INFLUENZAE TYPE-B ISOLATES IN THE UNITED-KINGDOM, Journal of Medical Microbiology, 43(1), 1995, pp. 45-49
Strains of Haemophilus influenzae type b were collected as part of an
epidemiological study of bacterial meningitis in the North East Thames
Region (NETR) of England. Subclones of H. influenzae were identified
by outer-membrane protein typing and multilocus enzyme electrophoresis
. These were compared with subclones of H. influenzae type b isolated
from elsewhere in the UK. The subclone ET 12.5/OMP 3L was identified i
n 68% of isolates from cases of meningitis from the NETR. In the isola
tes from elsewhere in the UK, this subclone was identified in 79% of s
terile-site isolates and 91% of isolates from non-sterile sites. This
subclone predominated in patients of different ages and from different
ethnic groups, which suggests that non-Caucasians are infected with t
he subclone predominating locally. Since ET 12.5/OMP 3L subclone is th
e most abundant strain isolated in virtually all other Western Europea
n countries, these results provide additional evidence that the geneti
c diversity in the H. influenzae type b population in Europe is relati
vely restricted.