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An epidemiological study of strains of Shigella sonnei from two related outbreaks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2009

Mair E. M. Thomas ,
Yasmeen Haider  and
Naomi Datta
Mair E. M. Thomas
Affiliation:
Epidemiological Research Laboratory, Central Public Health Laboratory, Colindale Avenue, London, N. W. 9
Yasmeen Haider
Affiliation:
Epidemiological Research Laboratory, Central Public Health Laboratory, Colindale Avenue, London, N. W. 9
Naomi Datta
Affiliation:
Department of Bacteriology, Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith, London, W.12
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During the winter of 1967–8 Sonne dysentery affected neighbouring North London primary schools. This was not simply due to cross-infection between the two schools, for two different, unusual strains of Sh. sonnei were distinguished. One was a novel kanamycin-resistant colicine type 7 strain, and as far as we know this was the first school outbreak due to such a strain to be documented. The other strain was kanamycin-sensitive and of colicine type 0 with a rare specific requirement for aspartic acid. There was some evidence to suggest that the kanamycin-resistant strain was more infective for adults and possibly more pathogenic than the kanamycin-sensitive.

Studies on the transfer of drug resistance and of colicinogeny revealed that the factor determining colicine type 7 was carried on a transmissible plasmid, a new observation. Various drug resistances were also transmissible experimentally, and some were spontaneously unstable. Non-transferable ampicillin-resistance in the colicine type 7 strain and aspartic acid dependence in the colicine type 0 strain enabled all but one of the isolates to be classified into two distinct lines. No common ancestor was found and it was concluded that although occurring together they must have arisen from separate sources.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Hygiene , Volume 70 , Issue 3 , September 1972 , pp. 589 - 596
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

References

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