The Human Skin as a Source of Mima-Herellea Infections

Abstract

BACTERIA of the<i>Mima-Herellea</i>group were not recognized as distinct and remained undescribed until 1942, when De Bord¹suggested the name<i>Mimeae</i>for a new tribe of gram-negative, nonmotile organisms which resembled Neisseria morphologically, but differed in biochemical characteristics. He named the two new organisms<i>Mima polymorpha</i>and<i>Herellea vaginicola.</i> During subsequent years, other authors reported similar organisms but gave them different names so that the situation became extremely confusing. Synonyms for bacteria in this group include "B5W,"²<i>Bacterium anitratum</i>,³<i>Moraxella glucidolytica</i>,⁴<i>Achromobacter lwoffi</i>,⁵and<i>Acinetobacter anitratum</i>.⁶Reviews of the literature are given by Rosebury in 1962⁷and Daly et al in 1962.⁸ Presumably due to the uncertain taxonomic position of these bacteria, they were not included in the seventh edition of<i>Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology</i>. This, combined with the confusing variety of synonyms, resulted in failure to identify this group