Nosocomial CDC group IV c-2 bacteremia: epidemiological investigation by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA analysis

Abstract

The CDC group IV c-2 bacterium is a gram-negative bacillus rarely isolated from clinical specimens. This organism caused catheter-related bacteremia in five immunocompromised children hospitalized in two distinct wards of our institution between November 1993 and October 1994. Three patients recovered on empiric antibacterial chemotherapy combining ceftazidime and amikacin, and a fourth patient required imipenem instead of ceftazidime. The fifth patient recovered without treatment. Catheter removal was never necessary. The randomly amplified polymorphic DNA technique with three different primers was applied to nine isolates recovered by culturing blood from the five children and showed that all of the patients harbored isolates of the same genotype. The source of the outbreak could not be determined.