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Pseudo-Outbreak of Clostridium sordellii Infection following Probable Cross-Contamination in a Hospital Clinical Microbiology Laboratory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

David M. Aronoff ,
Tennille Thelen ,
Seth T. Walk ,
Kathleen Petersen ,
Julia Jackson ,
Sylvia Grossman ,
James Rudrik ,
Duane W. Newton  and
Carol E. Chenoweth
David M. Aronoff*
Affiliation:
Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Lansing, Michigan
Tennille Thelen
Affiliation:
Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Lansing, Michigan
Seth T. Walk
Affiliation:
Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Lansing, Michigan
Kathleen Petersen
Affiliation:
Department of Infection Control and Epidemiology, Lansing, Michigan
Julia Jackson
Affiliation:
Department of Infection Control and Epidemiology, Lansing, Michigan
Sylvia Grossman
Affiliation:
Clinical Microbiology Laboratories, Department of Pathology, Lansing, Michigan
James Rudrik
Affiliation:
University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, and the Bureau of Laboratories, Michigan Department of Community Health, Lansing, Michigan
Duane W. Newton
Affiliation:
Clinical Microbiology Laboratories, Department of Pathology, Lansing, Michigan
Carol E. Chenoweth
Affiliation:
Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Lansing, Michigan
*
4618-C Medical Sciences BIdg II, 1150 W Medical Center Dr, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-5623, (daronoff@umich.edu)
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Extract

We report a pseudo-outbreak of infection caused by Clostridium sordellii, an uncommon human pathogen. The pseudo-outbreak involved 6 patients and was temporally associated with a change by the clinical microbiology laboratory in the protocol of handling anaerobic culture specimens. All isolates were genetically indistinguishable from a laboratory reference strain used for quality control.

Type
Concise Communications
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 31 , Issue 6 , June 2010 , pp. 640 - 642
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 2010

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