OSHA Partners With JCAHO to Promote Voluntary Protection Program

to-human spread. In our outbreak, all five infants were premature (gestational age, 24-28 weeks), had low birth weight, and experienced multiple medical problems requiring indwelling catheters, parenteral nutrition, phototherapy, antibiotics, and, in three cases, steroids. These demographic characteristics are similar to those of six neonates with M canis skin infection described in a previous report in which the source was also a nurse with skin lesions. In both of these outbreaks, M canis was transmitted from person to person, which is unusual. However, all of the affected babies were premature. The skin in premature infants is a defective barrier, which could explain why these lowbirth-weight neonates were infected with M canis carried by a nurse.