Multidrug-Resistant Infection is Diverse, Frequent in Hospital Setting

A new study presented at IDWeek 2020 showed various risk factors—both those known and under-acknowledged—can commonly drive MDRO contamination between patients, surfaces, and particular departments of a hospital.

The data, presented by study author Matthew J. Ziegler, MD MSCE,Assistant Professor of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania, showed an observed group of 45 patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) presented with a variety of MDROs:

• Enterobacterales (ESBLE) (27%)
• Carbapenem-resistant organisms (CRO) (9%)
• Methicillin-resistant S.aureus (MRSA) (24%)
• Vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE) (9%)
• C. difficile (C. diff) (31%)

Ziegler and colleagues reported that patient colonization during serial sampling was common among ESBLE, CRO, and VRE. MDRO detection via environmental surfaces was common among all subtypes aside from C. diff.

They also observed patient-to-environment transmission in 40% of patient rooms, and foreign MDRO contamination in 29% of rooms—with the most common being CRO.

Bathrooms and sinks, as well as surfaces near patients were the most frequently-contaminated MDRO environments.

In an interview with Contagion during IDWeek, Ziegler discussed these findings and their implication for contamination mitigation, as well as current clinical understanding of contaminated environments.

Watch the full interview with Ziegler in the video above.

The poster, “Patient to Environment Transmission of Multidrug-resistant Bacteria Within Intensive Care Units,” was presented by IDWeek 2020.