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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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