The Journal of Medical Microbiology, Vol 38, Issue 5 378-383, Copyright © 1993 by Society for General Microbiology
Outer-membrane protein and immunoblot analysis of Australian isolates of Haemophilus influenzae
D. Hansman and A. Lawrence
Department of Microbiology, Adelaide Children's Hospital Campus, North Adelaide, South Australia.
Strains of Haemophilus influenzae isolated from children in South Australia
and the Northern Territory with systemic infections (mostly meningitis or
epiglottitis) were subjected to serotyping, biotyping, outer-membrane
protein (OMP) analysis and immunoblot subtyping. All 65 isolates examined
were from blood or cerebrospinal fluid; 59 (91%) of the strains were
identified as type b and the remainder as either type a (two strains) or
non-typable (four strains). Of the 59 type b strains, 45 (76%) belonged to
a single OMP subtype (equivalent to subtype 3L in the Barenkamp scheme);
the remaining type b strains belonged to five other OMP subtypes. No
correlation was apparent between OMP subtype and geographical region,
clinical diagnosis or antimicrobial drug susceptibility pattern. Immunoblot
subtyping enabled nine (18%) of 41 strains belonging to the principal OMP
subtype to be distinguished from the remainder.
