Use of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis in infection control issues concerning Burkholderia cepacia

There was concern that nosocomial person-to-person transmission of Burkholderia cepacia had occurred when two patients with cystic fibrosis shared a bathroom. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis demonstrated that the two isolates were unrelated. Subsequent testing of 34 stored isolates of B. cepacia demonstrated that no particular clone predominated in our hospital.