1999 Volume 73 Issue 9 Pages 923-929
We conducted a molecular epidemiological analysis to evaluate the epidemiologic patterns of Shigella sonnei isolates from outbreak cases in Yokohama to clarify the epidemiologic linkages by con-tact tracing and sources of infection. In the first case (case A), all of the 6 isolates were the colicin O type and resistant to both streptomycin (SM) and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (ST). The 5 iso-lates have plasmid of 230kb. By RAPD analysis with 2 kinds of primers specific for Shigella, every 6 isolates showed the same pattern. But the DNA fingerprint analysis by PFGE that was performed ac-cording to 2 standardized restriction endonucleases revealed a discriminative pattern.However, the resemblance of all isolates, which was calculated by the UPGMA methods, was 0.90 or higher. In the second case (case B), all of the 14 isolates were the colicin 6 type and sensitive to 16 drugs. The sero-type of 13 isolates was phase I. The 11 isolates have plasmids of 230kb and 3kb. The resemblance of all isolates, which was calculated by the UPGMA methods, was 0.89 or higher.
The analysis with a combination of the plasmid, RAPD analysis and PFGE profiles may be effec-tive in investigating detailed epidemiological features of isolates.
