| Abstract: | Whilst patient to patient spread of the respiratory pathogenBurkholderia cepacia is well recognised between patientswith cystic fibrosis, prompting a strict segregation policy, cross colonisation between cystic fibrosis patients already infected withB cepacia has not been described and surveys show a very low incidence of patients with more than one strain. Five adult cysticfibrosis patients with B cepacia are presented who became cross colonised with a second B cepacia (UK epidemic)strain, four of whom then died, three from the cepacia syndrome. These cases show that, amongst segregated patients, cross colonisation withdifferent B cepacia strains is possible, and even in these patients the acquisition of the UK epidemic strain may have a fataloutcome. In future it may be necessary to segregate cystic fibrosispatients colonised with the UK epidemic strain from all other patientswith cystic fibrosis.
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