A polymerase chain reaction-based typing method for noncapsulate Haemophilus influenzae was developed. Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA fingerprints were generated from boiled supernatants prepared directly from bacterial colonies without the need for DNA extraction. The technique was applied to isolates obtained during putative outbreaks of chest infection and validated by comparison with sodium dodecyl sulfatepolyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analysis of outer membrane protein-enriched preparations and rRNA gene restriction analysis. There was complete concordance between the three techniques. The results show that randomly amplified polymorphic DNA analysis provides a highly discriminatory method of characterizing strains of noncapsulate H. influenzae which is eminently suitable as an epidemiological tool for the rapid investigation of outbreaks of infection.