A STUDY OF A HOSPITAL CLUSTER OF SYSTEMIC CANDIDOSIS USING DNA TYPINGMETHODS

A cluster of disseminated Candida albicans infections, which occurred at the Intensive Care Unit of the Department of Heart Surgery, was inv estigated. Ten patients became infected and seven died. A wide microbi ological surveillance was carried out. A total of 14 isolates of Candi da albicans, four environmental and ten human, were examined using the Restriction Endonuclease Analysis (REA) of DNA. The isolates were cla ssified into five different main groups. Five of the clinical isolates had the predominant pattern Ab and two more clinical strains were ver y closely related. Two more isolates from the emergency kit desk and t he hands of a nurse gave the same REA profile. Such a relationship pro ved the epidemic nature of the cluster, with most of the patients cros s-infected, and strongly suggested transmission on the hands of the st aff as a determinant of the epidemic. Thus, REA has the potential to a ddress many important questions in the study of nosocomial epidemiolog y of Candida albicans.