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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, October 1998, p. 2914-2917, Vol. 36, No. 10
0095-1137/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Outbreak of Pseudomonas fluorescens Bacteremia among Oncology Patients

Po-Ren Hsueh,1,2 Lee-Jene Teng,3 Hui-Ju Pan,1 Yu-Chi Chen,1 Chun-Chuan Sun,4 Shen-Wu Ho,3 and Kwen-Tay Luh1,2,*

Departments of Laboratory Medicine,1 Internal Medicine,2 and Nursery,4 National Taiwan University Hospital, and School of Medical Technology, National Taiwan University College of Medicine,3 Taipei, Taiwan

Received 20 April 1998/Returned for modification 2 July 1998/Accepted 23 July 1998

From 7 to 24 March 1997, four patients developed Pseudomonas fluorescens bacteremia at the hospital; one on the oncology ward and the other three in the chemotherapy room. These patients all had underlying malignancies and had the Port-A-Cath (Smiths Industries Medical Systems, Deltec, Inc., St. Paul, Minn.) implants. Three patients had primary bacteremia, and one had Port-A-Cath-related infection. None of these patients had received a blood transfusion before the episodes of bacteremia. All patients recovered: two received antimicrobial agents with in vitro activity against the isolates, and the other two did not have any antibiotic treatment. A total of eight blood isolates were recovered from these patients during the febrile episodes that occurred several minutes after the infusion of chemotherapeutic agents via the Port-A-Cath. These isolates were initially identified as P. fluorescens or Pseudomonas putida (four), Burkholderia (Ralstonia) pickettii (three), and a non-glucose-fermenting gram-negative bacillus (one) by routine biochemical methods and the Vitek GNI card. These isolates were later identified as P. fluorescens on the basis of the characteristic cellular fatty acid chromatogram and the results of supplemental biochemical tests. The identification of identical antibiotypes by the E test and the random amplified polymorphic DNA patterns generated by arbitrarily primed PCR of the isolates showed that the outbreak was caused by a single clone of P. fluorescens. Surveillance cultures of the possibly contaminated infusion fluids and disinfectants, which were performed 7 days after recognition of the last infected patient, failed to isolate P. fluorescens. This report of a small outbreak caused by P. fluorescens suggests that timely, accurate identification of unusual nosocomial pathogens is crucial for early initiation of an epidemiological investigation and timely control of an outbreak.


* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Laboratory Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Chung-Shan South Rd., Taipei, Taiwan. Phone: 886-2-23562149. Fax: 886-2-23224263. E-mail: luhkt{at}ha.mc.ntu.edu.tw.


Journal of Clinical Microbiology, October 1998, p. 2914-2917, Vol. 36, No. 10
0095-1137/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.



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