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The JK Diphtheroids

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Paul E. Schoch  and
Burke A. Cunha
Paul E. Schoch
Affiliation:
Infectious Disease Division, Department of Medicine, and the Department of Pathology, Winthrop-University Hospital, Mineola, New York
Burke A. Cunha*
Affiliation:
Infectious Disease Division, Department of Medicine, and the Department of Pathology, Winthrop-University Hospital, Mineola, New York
*
Infectious Disease Division, Winthrop-University Hospital, 259 First Street, Mineola, NY 11501
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Extract

In Bergey's manual, animal and human corynebacteria are a group of aerobic and facultatively anaerobic gram-positive or slightly curved bacilli that are generally nonmotile, catalase-positive, and non-acid fast. The best known and most clinically significant pathogen in the genus Corynebacterium is C. diphtheriae. However, other members of this genus are frequently encountered in the clinical laboratory and usually represent colonization or commensal contamination, since most other corynebacteria are of low virulence and questionable clinical significance. Frequently described as “diphtheroids,” such organisms are usually dismissed as contaminants and are not speciated or subjected to susceptibility testing. The JK diphtheroids may be differentiated from clinically unimportant “diphtheroids” by their resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics and their distinctive morphologic and cultural characteristics (Table 1).

Type
Special Sections
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 7 , Issue 9 , September 1986 , pp. 466 - 469
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1986

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References

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