U.K. Resistant Germ Outbreak Halted With Gene Sequencer
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U.K. scientists used DNA sequencers to trace and contain a resistant bacterial infection spreading in babies at a hospital in Cambridge, England, in the first such use of the technology, according to a report in The Lancet.
Researchers at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge University and Cambridge University Hospitals took samples from 12 newborns who contracted methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in a unit for ill babies last year, according to the paper published today. Using an Illumina Inc. machine to perform whole-genome sequencing, they studied the genetic profiles of germs in the samples, linked them and traced a later outbreak to a health worker carrying the same strain. The worker was then treated.