USE OF DNA-FINGERPRINTING AND BIOTYPING METHODS TO STUDY A CANDIDA-ALBICANS OUTBREAK IN A NEONATAL INTENSIVE-CARE UNIT

During a 15-day period, 7 premature infants hospitalized in a neonatal intensive care unit presented with sepsis caused by Candida albicans. The local environment and hands of all 54 persons involved in the int ensive care unit were examined for the presence of this organism. Five techniques were used in the analysis of the isolates recovered from b lood cultures of the children, the hands of personnel and 10 control i solates. The methods used were serotype determination, genetic fingerp rinting, morphotyping, resistotyping and killer yeast typing. Morphoty ping and genetic fingerprinting proved to be the most discriminatory t echniques, and only combined analysis of the results obtained with the se various methods allowed the source of the outbreak to be identified . An isolate from the hands of a healthy staff member and isolates fro m infected children all belonged to the same strain.