Contamination of Commercially Packaged Urinary Catheter Kits with the Pseudomonad EO-1

THE pseudomonad EO-1 (Eugonic OxidizerGroup 1) has been identified sporadically from various patient sources since 1966 in the University of Minnesota Hospitals. An unusually high frequency of isolation of EO-1 strains from urine cultures was noted in the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory during the months of August and early September, 1969. This observation led to the discovery that all patients from whom these strains were isolated during this period had undergone a recent urethral catheterization with the use of a commercially packaged catheter tray.MethodsCatheter kits stored on hospital stations and in operating rooms were randomly collected, and items contained . . .