Epidemiologic and molecular investigations of genital mycoplasmas from women and neonates at delivery.

The rates of colonization by Ureaplasma urealyticum and Mycoplasma hominis were evaluated in 208 women at delivery and in their neonates. Mycoplasmas were isolated from the cervicovaginal specimens of 100 mothers (48.1%) and from the gastric secretions of 40 neonates (19.2%). The prevalences of U. urealyticum and M. hominis were 47.6% and 11.0% in women and 19.2% and 1.0% in neonates, respectively. Premature rupture of membranes was significantly associated with colonization of women by U. urealyticum (P = 0.031), and colonization of their neonates by U. urealyticum (P = 0.002) and/or M. hominis (P = 0.023). Forty-four selected strains of mycoplasmas were further characterized by arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction. All strains of U. urealyticum belonged to the parvo biovar of the species. Arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction demonstrated the similarity of strains isolated from mother-neonate pairs, confirming the importance of vertical transmission of mycoplasmas at delivery.