Skip to main content
PMC home page
The Journal of Hygiene logoLink to The Journal of Hygiene
. 1978 Apr;80(2):295–300. doi: 10.1017/s0022172400053651

Epidemiological patterns of Klebsiella colonization and infection in an intensive care ward.

M W Casewell, I Phillips
PMCID: PMC2129997  PMID: 632569

Abstract

Twenty-four per cent of 2315 patients admitted to the intensive care unit of St Thomas's Hospital in the 4 year period from November 1969 became colonized or infected with Klebsiella species. Capsular typing of 986 klebsiella isolates from 551 patients showed that there were 695 patient-isolates, mostly derived from the respiratory tract. Capsular types 47 and 21 were the commonest types and together accounted for 19.9% of the patient-isolates. The 14 commonest types accounted for 47.3% of all patient-isolates and all these strains showed clustering, strongly suggesting a changing common source, cross infection, or both.

Full text

PDF
295

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Bassett D. J. Causes and prevention of sepsis due to Gram-negative bacteria. Common-source outbreaks. Proc R Soc Med. 1971 Sep;64(9):980–986. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bell J. A., Bradley R. D., Jenkins B. S., Spencer G. T. Six years of multidisciplinary intensive care. Br Med J. 1974 Jun 1;2(5917):483–488. doi: 10.1136/bmj.2.5917.483. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Casewell M. W. Experiences in the use of commercial antisera for the capsular typing of klebsiella species. J Clin Pathol. 1972 Aug;25(8):734–737. doi: 10.1136/jcp.25.8.734. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Casewell M. W. Titres and cross reactions of commercial antisera for the capsular typing of Klebsiella species. J Clin Pathol. 1975 Jan;28(1):33–36. doi: 10.1136/jcp.28.1.33. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Dans P. E., Barrett F. F., Casey J. I., Finland M. Klebsiella-Enterobacter at Boston City Hospital, 1967. Arch Intern Med. 1970 Jan;125(1):94–101. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Eickhoff T. C., Steinhauer B. W., Finland M. The Klebsiella-Enterobacter-Serratia division. Biochemical and serologic characteristics and susceptibility to antibiotics. Ann Intern Med. 1966 Dec;65(6):1163–1179. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-65-6-1163. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Martin W. J., Yu P. K., Washington J. A., 2nd Epidemiologic significance of Klebsiella pneumoniae. A 3-month study. Mayo Clin Proc. 1971 Dec;46(12):785–793. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Meers P. D., Calder M. W., Mazhar M. M., Lawrie G. M. Intravenous infusion of contaminated dextrose solution: The Deveonport incident. Lancet. 1973 Nov 24;2(7839):1189–1192. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(73)92950-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Montgomerie J. Z., Doak P. B., Taylor D. E., North J. D., Martin W. J. Klebsiella in faecal flora of renal-transplant patients. Lancet. 1970 Oct 17;2(7677):787–792. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(70)91458-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Phillips I., King A., Jenkins S., Spencer G. Control of respirator-associated infection due to Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Lancet. 1974 Oct 12;2(7885):871–873. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(74)91204-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Rennie R. P., Duncan I. B. Emergence of gentamicin-resistant Klebsiella in a general hospital. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 1977 Feb;11(2):179–184. doi: 10.1128/aac.11.2.179. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. ØRSKOV I. Serological investigations in the Klebsiella group. II. Occurrence of Klebsiella in sputa. Acta Pathol Microbiol Scand. 1955;36(5):454–460. doi: 10.1111/j.1699-0463.1955.tb04641.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The Journal of Hygiene are provided here courtesy of Cambridge University Press

RESOURCES