Skip to main content
Journal of Clinical Microbiology logoLink to Journal of Clinical Microbiology
. 1997 Sep;35(9):2422–2423. doi: 10.1128/jcm.35.9.2422-2423.1997

Wooden sticks as the source of a pseudoepidemic of infection with Rhizopus microsporus var. rhizopodiformis among immunocompromised patients.

P E Verweij 1, A Voss 1, J P Donnelly 1, B E de Pauw 1, J F Meis 1
PMCID: PMC229983  PMID: 9276431

Abstract

Wooden sticks used to suspend feces obtained for surveillance cultures were found to be the source of Rhizopus microsporus var. rhizopodiformis causing a pseudo-outbreak among 17 immunocompromised patients cared for in three different wards. Nonsterile wooden products should therefore not be used for collecting, handling, and processing specimens for microbiological examination.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (127.0 KB).

Selected References

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

  1. Harper J. J., Coulter C., Lye G. R., Nimmo G. R. Rhizopus and tongue depressors. Lancet. 1996 Nov 2;348(9036):1250–1250. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(05)65533-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Johnson A. S., Ranson M., Scarffe J. H., Morgenstern G. R., Shaw A. J., Oppenheim B. A. Cutaneous infection with Rhizopus oryzae and Aspergillus niger following bone marrow transplantation. J Hosp Infect. 1993 Dec;25(4):293–296. doi: 10.1016/0195-6701(93)90116-h. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Leeming J. G., Moss H. A., Elliott T. S. Risk of tongue depressors to the immunocompromised. Lancet. 1996 Sep 28;348(9031):889–889. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(05)64758-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Lyon D. T., Schubert T. T., Mantia A. G., Kaplan M. H. Phycomycosis of the gastrointestinal tract. Am J Gastroenterol. 1979 Oct;72(4):379–394. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Mitchell S. J., Gray J., Morgan M. E., Hocking M. D., Durbin G. M. Nosocomial infection with Rhizopus microsporus in preterm infants: association with wooden tongue depressors. Lancet. 1996 Aug 17;348(9025):441–443. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(96)05059-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Paparello S. F., Parry R. L., MacGillivray D. C., Brock N., Mayers D. L. Hospital-acquired wound mucormycosis. Clin Infect Dis. 1992 Jan;14(1):350–352. doi: 10.1093/clinids/14.1.350. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Rosenberger R. S., West B. C., King J. W. Survival from sino-orbital mucormycosis due to Rhizopus rhizopodiformis. Am J Med Sci. 1983 Nov-Dec;286(3):25–30. doi: 10.1097/00000441-198311000-00004. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Singh N., Gayowski T., Singh J., Yu V. L. Invasive gastrointestinal zygomycosis in a liver transplant recipient: case report and review of zygomycosis in solid-organ transplant recipients. Clin Infect Dis. 1995 Mar;20(3):617–620. doi: 10.1093/clinids/20.3.617. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Weems J. J., Jr, Andremont A., Davis B. J., Tancrede C. H., Guiguet M., Padhye A. A., Squinazi F., Martone W. J. Pseudoepidemic of aspergillosis after development of pulmonary infiltrates in a group of bone marrow transplant patients. J Clin Microbiol. 1987 Aug;25(8):1459–1462. doi: 10.1128/jcm.25.8.1459-1462.1987. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Clinical Microbiology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES