Isolation and Identification of a Klebsiella Spp from a Clinical Samples

The Importance of Strain Delineation in Nosocomial Pathogen Identification

Abstract

Nosocomial infections are an important cause ofmorbidity and mortality among hospitalized patients. Epidemiologists frequentlyrely on the laboratory identification and typing of nosocomial pathogens toprovide evidence for the biologic and genetic relatedness of these organi,smsas an ai,c1 in the epidemiological investigation (Abe i a/,,,.)-7-,,--,-. * .41,7,-.         i -r-' 1          981; Bjorvati i    al.         1          985; Wachsmuth,1986). In many cases,just the species identification and antimicrobial susceptibility pattern(antibiogram) are sufficient to confirm the epidemiological relationshipbetween different isolates; however, there is an increasing need for moredetailed subspecies delineation or typing of nosocomial pathogens. Therationale for such strain delineation is that repeated isolation of an organismwith identical markers from one or more patients suggests that the organism mayhave originated from a single source and therefore is more likely to representinfection or transmission from patient to patient from a common source or by acommon mechanism.