epidemiology

Who’s looking for CPE in English hospitals?

Jon Otter (@jonotter) CRE , , , , , ,

A team of authors surveyed NHS acute hospitals in England to determine the approach to CPE detection, including laboratory methods. The findings provide an opportunity to compare the approach to CPE detection and prevalence nationally, identifying higher CPE prevalence in the North-West, North-East and the South-East (the region that includes London) of England. The findings also suggest that more screening for CPE would detect more carriers – and perhaps help to prevent a silent epidemic of CPE in some regions.

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Planning to halve GNBSI: getting to grips with healthcare-associated E. coli BSI sources

Jon Otter (@jonotter) GNBSI , ,

Today, the Journal of Hospital Infection have published an article from our research group about E. coli BSI sources. The key message is that the sources of E. coli BSIs at a large teaching hospital differ considerably from the national average, with a large proportion related to febrile neutropaenia (18%) and diverse gastrointestinal sources (15%). This calls into question the ‘preventable’ proportion of these cases – and adds something to the discussion as to whether the national ambition to halve GNBSI by 2021 is feasible.

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Making terminal disinfection BETR part II: another perspective

Jon Otter (@jonotter) Decolonisation , , ,

Marc recently posted about the second clinical outcome findings from the BETR-D study, recently published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases. Marc contended that the team may have been ‘blinded by the [UV] light’ in reaching the conclusion that enhanced terminal room disinfection led to a hospital wide reduction in acquisition of key pathogens. Here, in the spirit of healthy academic debate, I offer another perspective.

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Are our attempts to contain CPE going down the drain?

Jon Otter (@jonotter) CRE , , , , ,

I posted recently on the potential risk of CPE contamination of sinks, drains, and hospital wastewater. The question in my mind then was whether contamination is a smoking gun or innocent bystander regarding CPE transmission? What we really need is an intervention to show that better management of sinks and drains results in reduce CPE transmission. And now, we have one! The findings suggest that attempts to control CPE will go down the drain if we don’t intervene to improvement the management of sinks and drains.

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The importance of patient sharing between hospitals on MRSA transmission

Jon Otter (@jonotter) MRSA , , , , ,

In a remarkable quirk of academic publishing, two virtually identical studies by separate research groups in the UK (one in London, and one in Cambridge) published a week apart have come to the same conclusion: that we are missing a sizable portion of MRSA transmission by focussing solely on wards in a single hospital. A referral-network level view is required for an accurate picture of MRSA transmission. (You may have seen some press about the Cambridge article, e.g. on the BBC here.)

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Looking back on a CPE plasmid attack in the Northwest of England

Jon Otter (@jonotter) CRE , , , , , ,

A genomic study of 44 isolates of CPE from various species identified between 2008 and 2010, mainly from the Northwest of England, has concluded that plasmids played a key role in the early dissemination of CPE.

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Special issue on MDR-GNR

Jon Otter (@jonotter) Antibiotic resistance, CRE , , , ,

The Journal of Hospital Infection have published a welcome special issue on multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. The collection includes some updates on epidemiology, staff carriage (again!), clinical microbiology, and patient perspectives on CPE, and is well worth a read.

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CPE: a good reason to avoid surgery in Spain!

Jon Otter (@jonotter) CRE , , ,

A clear simple study has a stark headline: 16% of admissions to a Spanish surgical ICU carry CPE. This sort of carriage prevalence is at a ‘practice-affecting’ level: the empiric antibiotic choices may be altered and you begin to wonder what is left when the first signs of infection develop in almost 1 in every 5 patients…

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How to predict ESBL bloodstream infection?

marcbonten ESBL , , ,

Each day we prescribe antibiotics without knowing the specific cause of infection, yet. Some patients will have an infection caused by an ESBL-producing bug, and they would benefit from immediate treatment with a carbapenem or addition of an aminoglycoside. At the same time we don’t want to misuse carbapenems or hurt kidneys. Wouldn’t it be great if we could accurately predict who would need a carbapenem? Now you can. Continue reading →

Can we really halve Gram-negative BSIs (GNBSIs) by 2021? Kiernan vs. Otter Mk II

Jon Otter (@jonotter) GNBSI , , , , , , ,

The UK government has recently announced their ambition to halve the rate of Gram-negative BSIs by 2021. Looking at the latest mandatory reporting dataset (see Figure 1 below), you can see why. Impressive reductions in MRSA BSI and C. difficile, but a notable increase in E. coli BSI. And this combined this with worrying data around increased antimicrobial resistance in Gram-negative bacteria from the ESPAUR report. In this post, Martin Kiernan and Jon Otter present both sides of the argument as to whether Gram-negative BSIs can be reduced by 2021, with comment from Andreas Voss and Marc Bonten! And you get to vote on which side of the argument you come down on after reading the arguments. Let battle commence…

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