Post-Operative Wound Infection due to Staphylococcus Pyogenes

IT can be said with certainty that, in most general hospitals today, staphylococcal infection is the major bacteriological problem. The introduction of penicillin in 1941 proved so successful against this type of infection that many were lulled into a false sense of security. It has become increasingly apparent over the last ten years that the adaptability of the staphylococcus has been underestimated. The discovery of broad-spectrum antibiotics raised fresh hopes of conquering the staphylococcus, but today it is commonplace to find hospital epidemics of staphylococcal infection due to multiple drug-resistant strains. Effective epidemiological investigation of cross-infection due to the staphylococcus pyogenes requires a system of typing within the species, in addition to test of coagulase production and antibiotic sensitivity. Since a routine service of bacteriophage typing was set up at The Laboratories, Belfast City Hospital, in the latter part of 1958, opportunity has been afforded to study some aspects of post-operative wound infection due to the pathogenic staphylococcus. During 1959 two major outbreaks occurred in the surgical departments of hospitals in Northern Ireland which seem of special interest and are here reported. One of these was of a severe explosive nature, lasting one month, in which the infection was successfully eradicated; the second, though less severe, was of intractable form, and all attempts to terminate the epidemic failed.