Lack of evidence of increased risk of bacterial transmission during cystic fibrosis educational programmes.

Background: Educational and rehabilitation programmes increase the quality-of-life of patients with cystic fibrosis, but patients are discouraged to participate because of the risk of cross-infections.

Methods: Isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Haemophilus influenzae cultured one year before to one year after attendance were investigated by pulsed field gel electrophoresis, multilocus sequence typing and/or spa-typing.

Results: We typed 984 bacterial isolates cultured from 46 patients aged 5-18 years attending educational programmes at Aarhus University Hospital during 2009-2011. There were no cross-infections with P. aeruginosa. Six cases of S. aureus or H. influenzae strain replacement with a new strain-type shared with a fellow attendee were found. However, the probability of acquiring a shared strain of S. aureus or H. influenzae was not increased for patients attending educational programmes.

Conclusions: Transmission of P. aeruginosa, S. aureus and H. influenzae related to attendance to the investigated educational programmes could not be documented.