The occurrence of genital mycoplasmas in babies with and without respiratory distress.

Ureaplasma urealyticum organisms (ureaplasmas) were isolated from throat swabs and/or gastric aspirates taken from 22.5% of babies with respiratory distress in a special care unit. The organisms were isolated most frequently (33%) from a small number of babies with severe distress. However, they were recovered only a little less often (26%) from babies without respiratory distress in the unit, and from 19% of healthy babies, all of the aforementioned babies having been delivered vaginally. The numbers of organisms isolated from babies in the various groups were similar. There was, therefore, no clear evidence that ureaplasmas, nor M. hominis which was isolated from two babies only, were associated with respiratory distress. This finding was supported by the isolation of ureaplasmas from only one of 16 babies born by caesarian section, seven of whom developed respiratory distress but were ureaplasma-negative.