Comparison of bacteriophage typing, serotyping, and biotyping as aids in epidemiological surveillance of Klebsiella infections.
Bacteriophage typing was used to subdivide Klebsiella obtained from patients in a surgical intensive care unit during a 2-year period. The 15 phages employed to type the strains were propagated by a soft-agar layer technique. In all, 23 phage types were found among the 120 clinical strains. The phage types of repeat isolates were reproducible. Only 70% of the strains tested were phage typable, but when used in conjunction with capsular serotyping and biotyping, a much greater subdivision of the Klebsiella strains was achieved. The addition of phage typing to serobiotyping for epidemiological analysis suggested that the number of cross-infecting Klebsiella strains in the intensive care unit was few, but that these strains persisted in the unit for long periods of time and could infect different body sites.
D001434:Bacteriophage Typing; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D007709:Klebsiella / Q000145:classification* / Q000502:physiology; D007710:Klebsiella Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D012703:Serotyping