The journal of the American Medical Association recently published a paper about the Association of invasive Haemophilus influenzae infections in pregnant women and fetal results. The researchers studied British women who had an invasive h. influenzae infection (defined as the recovery of the organism from a normally sterile site). The researchers concluded that pregnant women had a greater risk of invasive infection than non-pregnant women, and these infections resulted in poor pregnancy results.
H. influenzae is a picky organism that grows on chocolate agar. Usually associated with respiratory tract infections, as the organism an encapsulated strain is, it can spread to other parts of the body and cause meningitis, sepsis, pericarditis and even urinary tract infections.
In terms of identification, h. influenzae are small, Gram-negative a a on microscopic examination. The opaque appear grayish colonies on chocolate agar. Since there are X and V factors to grow the organism on blood agar, appears only in the presence of an organism that hemolyzes of the blood (such as Staphylococcus aureus). In addition to the X and V requirements, h. influenzae ferments glucose, catalase positive.
Do you want to know more? The CDC has great information on this organism.
-Kelly Swails, MT (ASCP), is a professional, restore laboratory microbiologist and Web editor for Lab medicine.
No comments:
Post a Comment