The "Cloud Baby": An Example of Bacterial-Viral Interaction

It is common knowledge that neonatal staphylococcal disease has troubled hospitals ever since nurseries were first established as convenient places to house large numbers of newborn infants.¹ In recent years, the increased frequency of occurrence of this disease throughout the world has focused additional attention on this problem, since nursery-acquired staphylococcal infection represents a substantial cause of death among infants during the first several months of life. In addition, this condition is a constant source of annoyance to patients as well as physicians because of such manifestations as pyoderma, conjunctivitis, and mastitis, occurring not only in the infants themselves but also among their family contacts and the medical personnel attending them.²

The introduction of phage typing methods³ has contributed a refinement to epidemiologic methods which make it possible to map out the routes by which a Staphylococcus aureus may spread through a hospital. Unfortunately, the very complexity