Abstract
Confirmed isolates of nontoxigenic Corynebacterium diphtheriae in England and Wales increased substantially from 1986 to 1994. Ribotyping of 121 isolates confirmed in 1995 showed that 90 were of a single strain isolated exclusively from the throat; none had previously been identified in toxigenic strains from U.K. or non-U.K. residents. The upward trend in nontoxigenic C. diphtheriae probably represented increased ascertainment, although dissemination of a particular strain or clone may have been a factor.
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (64.1 KB).
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Bonnet J. M., Begg N. T. Control of diphtheria: guidance for consultants in communicable disease control. World Health Organization. Commun Dis Public Health. 1999 Dec;2(4):242–249. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Booth L. V., Ellis C., Wale M. C., Vyas S., Lowes J. A. An atypical case of Corynebacterium diphtheriae endocarditis and subsequent outbreak control measures. J Infect. 1995 Jul;31(1):63–65. doi: 10.1016/s0163-4453(95)91519-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Cianciotto N. P., Groman N. B. Characterization of bacteriophages from tox-containing, non-toxigenic isolates of Corynebacterium diphtheriae. Microb Pathog. 1997 Jun;22(6):343–351. doi: 10.1006/mpat.1996.0120. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- De Zoysa A., Efstratiou A., George R. C., Jahkola M., Vuopio-Varkila J., Deshevoi S., Tseneva G., Rikushin Y. Molecular epidemiology of Corynebacterium diphtheriae from northwestern Russia and surrounding countries studied by using ribotyping and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. J Clin Microbiol. 1995 May;33(5):1080–1083. doi: 10.1128/jcm.33.5.1080-1083.1995. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Efstratiou A., George R. C., Begg N. T. Non-toxigenic Corynebacterium diphtheriae var gravis in England. Lancet. 1993 Jun 19;341(8860):1592–1593. doi: 10.1016/0140-6736(93)90727-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Efstratiou A., George R. C. Laboratory guidelines for the diagnosis of infections caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae and C. ulcerans. World Health Organization. Commun Dis Public Health. 1999 Dec;2(4):250–257. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Groman N., Cianciotto N., Bjorn M., Rabin M. Detection and expression of DNA homologous to the tox gene in nontoxinogenic isolates of Corynebacterium diphtheriae. Infect Immun. 1983 Oct;42(1):48–56. doi: 10.1128/iai.42.1.48-56.1983. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Pappenheimer A. M., Jr, Murphy J. R. Studies on the molecular epidemiology of diphtheria. Lancet. 1983 Oct 22;2(8356):923–926. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(83)90449-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Tiley S. M., Kociuba K. R., Heron L. G., Munro R. Infective endocarditis due to nontoxigenic Corynebacterium diphtheriae: report of seven cases and review. Clin Infect Dis. 1993 Feb;16(2):271–275. doi: 10.1093/clind/16.2.271. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Wilson A. P., Efstratiou A., Weaver E., Allason-Jones E., Bingham J., Ridgway G. L., Robinson A., Mercey D., Colman G., Cookson B. D. Unusual non-toxigenic Corynebacterium diphtheriae in homosexual men. Lancet. 1992 Apr 18;339(8799):998–998. doi: 10.1016/0140-6736(92)91583-t. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]