All women with Candida isolated on the initial swab and a random sample of women without candidiasis were asked to provide a second vaginal swab at 24-28 weeks. 24-28 weeks
Of the 104 contacts with initially negative results, 26 had a repeat swab specimen taken at a median interval of 15 days (range 11 27 days) after the initial swab within the first month after the Hajj, and all results continued to be negative.
In addition, all household contacts whose results of the initial throat swab were negative were asked to return for serial throat swabs taken 2 weeks, 1 2 months, and 2 3 months later.
Over the course of the initial study, swab samples from the nasal passages, pharyngeal surface, rectum, and vaginal mucosa (where appropriate) were also collected and assayed.
Within 9 hours of the initial event, nasal swab specimens were collected for all persons in Senator Daschle's and Senator Feingold's offices and for all first responders.
We did not see a difference between the non-smokers and smokers in the bacteria cultured from the initial sinonasal swab nor the resultant bacteria of the biofilm cultures with the exception of one E.coli isolate.
In general there was strong concordance between the initial clinical swab and the resultant biofilm culture.
At the time of the initial examinations, conjunctival, nasal or rectal swabs were incubated for 10 min in 300 μl of phosphate buffered saline (PBS) at 40 °C; the swabs were subsequently turned upside down and centrifuged for 1 min at 6440 × g and the supernatant was used for TNA extraction (see below).
To assess the risk for infection at LPMs, we collected 280 water, soil, cloacal swab, and throat swab samples from the LPMs surrounding the locations of the initial 6 cases.
Swabs were taken within 1 day of the initial event from all 71 persons in the immediate exposure area, including those with positive nasal cultures for B. anthracis.
Many women admitted to the initial novelty of the swab and discomfort with inserting items into the vagina as barriers.
