Ureaplasma urealyticum colonization of full term infants

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Abstract
In a prospective study 225 (35%) of 640 pregnant women who delivered at term had vaginal colonization with Ureaplasma urealyticum at the time of delivery. One hundred ninety-three full term infants born to U. urealyticum-colonized mothers were cultured from the throat, eyes and vagina within the first 3 days of life. One hundred seven infants (55%) had at least one culture site positive for U. urealyticum (throat 41%, eyes 20%, vagina 40%). Rupture of membranes for .gtoreq. 12 hours and the mode of delivery did not affect vertical transmission of U. urealyticum. We were able to follow 108 infants during the first 3 months of life. Sixty-eight, 33 and 37% of the infants who were initially colonized with U. urealyticum in the throat, eyes and vagina, respectively, were still colonized when the follow-up cultures were obtained 3 months later. Fourteen of the 108 infants whom we follow developed a lower respiratory tract illness. In the pharyngeally colonized infants there was no increased risk for lower respiratory tract illness during early infancy compared with the pharyngeally noncolonized infants.