A Staphylococcal Isolation Service

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Clinical and epidemiologic studies have been conducted on a newly established 17-bed staphylococcal isolation unit over a 1-year period. Of 213 patients with staphylococcal sepsis who were admitted to the unit, only 14 succumbed to infection by Staphylococcus aureus. An equal number died of superinfection caused by gram negative bacteria. Approximately 44% of patients were infected by nontypable staphylococci which were highly resistant to penicillin G, chloramphenicol and tetracycline. The phage-typable staphylococci most frequently encountered in patients'' infections were types 80/81 (16.8%), 6/47/54 (7.5%), 80 (6.4%) and 7/77 (4.0%). A large percentage of these were resistant to antibiotics. Staphylococci carried within the nares of patients bore no resemblance to those of their primary infection sites. This was found to be true both on admission and at time of discharge of patients from the isolation unit. Nursing personnel caring for these patients did not become nasal carriers of patients'' strains nor did the staphylococcal nasal carrier rate increase among the nurses during the year. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of air microbiology before and after conversion to an isolation unit demonstrated a general increase in overall microbiological contamination of the air. However, this was caused principally by an increase in non-pathogenic gram negative bacteria; the number of hemolytic gram positive cocci isolated from the air decreased after conversion to an isolation unit.

This publication has 10 references indexed in Scilit: