Staphylococcus aureus in chronic and recurrent infections

Ninety-fourStaphylococcus aureus strains isolated from chronic and recurrent skin and respiratory tract infections were investigated for several virulence factor expressions. Production of protein A was noticed in all of the tested strains in amounts from less than 0.1 to more than 2.5 ng per 10⁶ bacterial cells. The percentage of the extracellularly produced protein A was found to lie between 4.5 and 27.8%. Two strains (both from the respiratory tract) produced more than 50 % of protein A in the extracellular form and one strain did not produce any detectable amount of the extracellular protein A; 99 % of the tested strains produced the clumping factor, 96% staphylocoagulase, 79 % staphylokinase and 90 % gelatinolytic activity; 79 % produced α-toxin exclusively or in combination with δ- or β-toxin; 8 % of strains produced β-toxin. There were differences in β-toxin production between strains from the respiratory tract (5 %) and skin infections (25 %). δ-Toxin was produced by 53 % of the strains. In each of the tested strains a complex of virulence factors was detected. The importance of inactivated extracellular products (especially α- and δ-toxin and in the case of skin infections also β-toxin) as components of staphylococcal whole-cell vaccine was suggested. Dedicated to Professor C. John on the occasion of his 75th birthday     

Neutrophil pyruvate kinase deficiency with recurrent staphylococcal infections: first reported case.

A woman with an intracellular killing defect in the neutrophils had neutrophil pyruvate kinase deficiency. She had had recurrent staphylococcal infections throughout her life. The enzyme present was unstable and its kinetics were abnormal.     

Epidemiology of airborne staphylococcal infections

[This corrects the article on p. 660 in vol. 30.].