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The Epidemiology of Colonization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

William R. Jarvis
William R. Jarvis*
Affiliation:
Investigation and Prevention Branch, Hospital Infections Program, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, US Public Health Service, Atlanta, Georgia
*
Investigation and Prevention Branch, Hospital Infections Program, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Mailstop E-69, 1600 Clifton Road NW Atlanta, GA 30333
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Abstract

Colonization is the presence of a microorganism in or on a host, with growth and multiplication but without any overt clinical expression or detected immune response in the host at the time it is isolated. Normal colonization in humans begins during the birth process and through subsequent contacts with the inanimate or animate environments until a delicately balanced “normal” flora is established; subsequently, the precise components of this flora evolve. This normal flora, such as coagulase-negative Staphylococcus or Staphylococcus aureus on the skin or Candida albicansin the gastrointestinal tract, vagina, or perineal area, can result in infection when normal body defenses are impaired through underlying disease, immunomodulating therapy, or the use of invasive devices, or when the delicate balance of the normal flora is altered through antimicrobial therapy. Many, if not most, hospital-acquired infections result directly or indirectly from patient colonization; studies have shown that hospitalized patients are colonized rapidly with hospital flora. Recognizing this reservoir of patients colonized with epidemiologically important pathogens in our hospitals and improving barrier precaution measures or altering host susceptibility will be necessary if we are to reduce the incidence of infections with these organisms.

Type
Symposium: Nosocomial Colonization
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , January 1996 , pp. 47 - 52
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1996

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