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James R. Lupski, MD, PhD

JAMA. 1993;270(11):1363-1364.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Molecular methods have become increasingly applicable to the epidemiologic analysis of infectious disease outbreaks. Although traditional methods to characterize epidemic strains have relied on the measurement of phenotypes, such as antibiotic resistance, phage typing, or serotyping, the newer molecular methods directly examine the genotype or DNA of a specific pathogenic strain. The genotypic-based molecular methods have greater discriminatory capabilities. In this issue of THE JOURNAL, two elegant studies^1,2 apply molecular methods to examine drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus outbreaks. In each case, molecular epidemiologic analysis illuminated the outbreak source, and the results had important clinical ramifications.

See also pp 1323 and 1329.

Back et al¹ examined a recurrent epidemic of erythromycin resistant S aureus (ERSA) infections in a well-baby nursery, using restriction endonuclease analysis of plasmid DNA (otherwise known as plasmid profiling) and genomic DNA typing by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. The first ERSA epidemic occurred during a 7-week period in . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Institute for Molecular Genetics, and the Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, and the Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, Tex.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to the Institute for Molecular Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Room 609E, Houston, TX 77030 (Dr Lupski).

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