Contaminated mouth swabs caused a multi-hospital outbreak of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection

Abstract

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a gram-negative, obligate aerobic rod-shaped bacterium with minimal nutritional requirements. It is often found in moist environments and can cause infections in immunocompromised or otherwise- susceptible hosts (1, 2). Numerous outbreaks have been associated with faulty or unclean medical equipment or products (3-9) and with personnel and environmental reservoirs (10-16), as well as with cross-contamination within the hospital (13, 17, 18).

(Published: 20 April 2010)

Citation: Journal of Oral Microbiology 2010, 2: 5123 - DOI: 10.3402/jom.v2i0.5123