Survival of cephalosporin-resistant enterobacteriaceae on fingers.

Five strains of Enterobacter species (n=4) and Pantoea species (n=1) resistant to third-generation cephalosporins and isolated from clusters of 3-25 premature infants and small children and 5 strains (4 Enterobacter strains and 1 Pantoea strain) with the same resistance pattern that were isolated from 1 premature infant or small child each were inoculated on the fingertips of 10 volunteer study participants to test whether survival on fingertips is correlated with horizontal transmission. Although there was no significant difference in survival between the groups of transmitted and sporadic strains, there were significant differences in bacterial survival between the participants.