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Changes in genetic types and population dynamics of Moraxella catarrhalis in hospitalized children are not associated with an exacerbation of existing disease

Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam (EMCR), Dr Molewaterplein 40, 3015 GD Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Correspondence J. P. Hays hays{at}bacl.azr.nl

Received March 10, 2003
Accepted April 22, 2003

Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis typing was performed on a retrospective set of 129 Moraxella catarrhalis isolates obtained over a 20 month period from 70 children admitted to, or presenting at, the Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The mean age of the children (at the end of the study) was 2.5 years, with a range of 6 months to 15 years. Fifty-one different M. catarrhalis types were isolated from the hospitalized children, with 31 % (22/70) being infected with two particularly prevalent M. catarrhalis types. These two prevalent types also exhibited different protein profiles. The majority (72%; 16/22) of the children infected with these two predominant types had spent at least 1 week on two paediatric intensive care wards. No exacerbation of existing disease or new disease was observed in children who experienced M. catarrhalis type changes.