Pseudomonas cepacia

[Glen Tamura]

Pseudomonas cepacia is rarely the cause of clinical sepsis in otherwise
healthy patients. It is a significant pathogen in patients with cystic
fibrosis, and can be a problem in immunocompromised patients, particularly
those with chronic granulomatous disease. In otherwise healthy people, it
is not really much of a pathogen.  It seems very unlikely that your
outbreak is due to either of these scenarios. It suggests a common source.
Pseudomonas cepacia can grow in Betadyne (povidone-iodine) and other
extremely harsh disinfectants, so I would suggest looking there first.

Misidentification of organisms such as Stenotrophomonas and
Pseudomonas as cepacia is also very common. I would send your isolates off
to a reference lab. 

On 9 Dec 1998, Lo Sze Khiong wrote:

> Recently our Hospital Laboratory had isolated 20+ cases of Pseudomonas
> cepacia from patient diagnosed as septicemia. Most of the isolate were from
> blood culture and some from ETT tips.
> 
> I would to get some feedback from other hospital worldwide if you also
> having this finding and does this species cause commom disease and how
> serious it is?
> 
> regards
> 
> Miri, Malaysia
> kirathy at tm.net.my
> 
>