Epidemiology of an outbreak of Candida endophthalmitis in heroin addicts: identification of possible source of infection by biotyping

Abstract

Biotyping was employed to investigate possible sources of Candida endophthalmitis in heroin addicts. Isolates of Candida albicans recovered from patients and from injection paraphernalia, including lemon juice diluent from lemon-shaped plastic containers, were biotyped. The predominant biotypes were 153, 15 3/7. Similar biotypes were recovered from lemon, mouth-wash, mouth swab and vitreous samples.