Healthcare Worker Occupation and Immune Response to Pneumocystis jirovecii

• Main Authors: Renuka Tipirneni, Kieran R. Daly, Leah G. Jarlsberg, Judy V. Koch, Alexandra Swartzman, Brenna M. Roth, Peter D. Walzer, Laurence Huang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2009-10-01
• Series: Emerging Infectious Diseases
• Subjects: Pneumocystis; health personnel; HIV/AIDS and other retroviruses; opportunistic infections; antibodies; fungal
• Online Access: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/15/10/09-0207_article
• ISSN: 1080-6040; 1080-6059

The reservoir and mode of transmission of Pneumocystis jirovecii remain uncertain. We conducted a cross-sectional study of 126 San Francisco General Hospital staff in clinical (n = 103) and nonclinical (n = 23) occupations to assess whether occupational exposure was associated with immune responses to P. jirovecii. We examined antibody levels by ELISA for 3 overlapping fragments that span the P. jirovecii major surface glycoprotein (Msg): MsgA, MsgB, and MsgC1. Clinical occupation participants had higher geometric mean antibody levels to MsgC1 than did nonclinical occupation participants (21.1 vs. 8.2, p = 0.004); clinical occupation was an independent predictor of higher MsgC1 antibody levels (parameter estimate = 0.89, 95% confidence interval 0.29–1.48, p = 0.003). In contrast, occupation was not significantly associated with antibody responses to either MsgA or MsgB. Healthcare workers may have occupational exposure to P. jirovecii. Humans may be a reservoir for P. jirovecii and may transmit it from person to person.