×

System and method for tracking and controlling infections

  • US 20080206767A1
  • Filed: 11/05/2007
  • Published: 08/28/2008
  • Est. Priority Date: 09/06/2000
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
Patent Images

1. A method of tracking the spread of infectious bacteria, comprising:

  • obtaining a plurality of bacterium samples from a plurality of patients or objects at a plurality of different physical locations;

    performing DNA sequencing on a first region of deoxyribonucleic acid from each bacterium sample;

    storing in a database for each of the plurality of bacterium samples;

    a) the nucleotide sequence data from the first sequenced region of each bacterium sample, and b) the physical location of the patient or object from which each bacterium sample was obtained;

    comparing the nucleotide sequence data stored in the database of at least two of the plurality of samples on both a base pair level and a repeat motif level;

    determining a measure of phylogenetic relatedness between the compared samples based upon differences between the compared nucleotide sequence data;

    identifying patients infected or objects contaminated with phylogenetically related bacteria based on the phylogenetic relatedness determination;

    tracking the spread over time of the bacteria based on;

    a) the identified patients or contaminated objects, and b) the physical locations of the identified patients or objects stored in the database; and

    providing a warning based on the tracking of the spread of the bacteria wherein the warning allows the recipient of the warning to control the further spread of the bacteria.

View all claims
  • 1 Assignment
Timeline View
Assignment View
    ×
    ×