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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, April 2000, p. 1536-1538, Vol. 38, No. 4
0095-1137/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Transmission of Pneumocystis carinii DNA
from a Patient with P. carinii Pneumonia to
Immunocompetent Contact Health Care Workers
Sergio L.
Vargas,1,*
Carolina
A.
Ponce,1
Francis
Gigliotti,2
Ana V.
Ulloa,1
Susana
Prieto,1
Maria P.
Muñoz,3 and
Walter T.
Hughes4
Program in Microbiology, Instituto de
Ciencias Biomédicas, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de
Chile,1 and Hospital Luis Calvo
Mackenna, Providencia,3 Santiago, Chile;
Department of Pediatrics, University of Rochester,
Rochester, New York 146422; and
Department of Infectious Diseases, St. Jude Children's
Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee 381054
Received 30 August 1999/Returned for modification 2 November
1999/Accepted 29 December 1999
The transmission of Pneumocystis carinii from person to
person was studied by detecting P. carinii-specific DNA in
prospectively obtained noninvasive deep-nasal-swab samples from a child
with a documented P. carinii pneumonia (PCP), his mother,
two contact health care workers, and 30 hospital staff members who did
not enter the patient's room (controls). Nested-DNA amplification was
done by using oligonucleotide primers designed for the gene encoding
the mitochondrial large subunit rRNA of rat P. carinii (P. carinii f. sp. carinii) that amplifies all
forms of P. carinii and internal primers specific for human
P. carinii (f. sp. hominis). P. carinii f. sp. hominis DNA was detected in samples
from the patient and all of his contacts versus none of the 30 hospital staff members. The results, as previously shown in murine models of
P. carinii pneumonia, document that person-to-person
transmission of P. carinii is possible. This observation
suggests that immunocompromised patients not on PCP prophylaxis should
not enter the room of a patient with PCP, and it also raises the
question as to whether healthy contacts can transmit the disease to
immunocompromised patients at risk.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Biomedical
Sciences Institute, University of Chile, Casilla 215 Tajamar, Santiago, Chile. Phone: (56-2) 732-5683. Fax: (56-2) 732-5160. E-mail:
svargas{at}reuna.cl.
Journal of Clinical Microbiology, April 2000, p. 1536-1538, Vol. 38, No. 4
0095-1137/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
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