INVASIVE ASPERGILLOSIS - CLUSTERS AND SOURCES

Clusters of invasive infection with Aspergillus fumigatus are known to be associated with building works but studying the epidemiology has b een hampered by the lack of a reliable typing system. A combination of three typing systems; silver staining of sodium dodecyl sulphate-poly acrylamide gels, immunoblot fingerprinting, and random amplification o f polymorphic DNA (RAPD) was applied to seven cases on a haematology u nit. The results show three of the patients to have indistinguishable isolates, suggesting a common source. Detection and removal of such so urces, although difficult, would be an effective way of controlling th e infection.