Studies on Pseudomonas aeruginosa Infection

V. Epidemiological survey by sero-typing

Abstract

Distribution of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Ps) in sputa was investigated in the ward of pulmonary tuberculosis during two years and the results had been reported previously in the Japanese Journal of Experimental Medicine 35 (5): 371, 1965 and the Journal of the Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases 38 (9): 311, 1964.
The carriage of Ps in sputa was found at the rate of about 9% among the patients. The Ps strains isolated at that time have been stored.
The serological typing of 0 antigen of these Ps strains was perfomed tentatively and, based on the results obtained, the epidemiological survey in this ward was made.
Ps of several types were isolated from the sputa of the pulmonary tuberculosis patients and the distribution of these types was found quite different from that in other wards or in other hospitals. Among these types, 2. types were predominant in the ward and one of these two was especially dominant for four months. It was believed that the transmission of Ps in the ward was caused not only by cross-infection but also by autogenous infection.
The clarification of the Ps carriage in the human intestinal tracts seems to be important to solve this problem.
The results of final typing of Ps will be reported in the near future.