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P. aeruginosa
- Question
- First of all, thank you for having created this site and that we can ask questions that we don't always dare to ask when visiting the CF centre.
My question is about Pseudomonas aeruginosa, is it transmitted through saliva? Is it more "dangerous" for a child than for an adult? And does everyone catch it at least once?
thank you for your answers - Answer
- Hello,
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the bacteria most frequently encountered in CF. The reservoirs are wet sites, both at home and in hospital (sinks, toilet bowls, drains, wet soils, racks, plant, aerosol equipment ...), but also outside (freshwaters and hot tubs ...). The bacterium is also found in the digestive tract of people who are not ill. Contamination can occur in two ways: either interhuman (between two people, one of which carries P. aeruginosa) or through the environment.
Humans can harbor P. aeruginosa pathologically
- In the bronchi: such as CF patients, those with bronchiectasis
- On the skin, on wounds such as leg ulcers
- In the ear canal (otitis)
or unknowingly in the digestive tract, the germ is then excreted in the feces.
You see that P. aeruginosa can be found in saliva (or rather in sputum) in people with lung disease such as cystic fibrosis or bronchiectasis. By cons it is extremely rare to find it in the saliva of other people.
About the dangers of P. aeruginosa, there is not that I know of a study showing greater severity in children compared to adults. What is sought is to delay as much as possible the moment it becomes "chronic" ie when we no longer are able to eradicate it.
Finally, to answer your question about the inevitability of colonization, you will see by consulting the various registers of cystic fibrosis, that if the rate of chronic colonization increases with age, it is never 100%. In France, for example, 20% of children between 0 and 4 years were colonized in the studied year by P. aeruginosa (90% of them this will be only transient colonization), while 60% of patients between 20 and 24 years are colonized with 72% chronically.
www.vaincrelamuco.org/e_upload/pdf/french_cf_registry_annual_data_report_2009.pdf (see pages 12)
Sincerely,
Dr. Sophie Ravilly - 15.05.2012
