This week's coverage in Infection Control Today centered on a common thread: the systems, partnerships, and data that let infection prevention teams catch problems before patients are harmed.
|Articles|August 2, 2018
Increasing Tolerance of Hospital Enterococcus faecium to Handwash Alcohols
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Alcohol-based disinfectants and particularly handrubs are a key way to control hospital infections worldwide. Such disinfectants restrict transmission of pathogens, such as multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecium. Despite this success, healthcare-associated infections caused by E. faecium are increasing.
The researchers looked for bacterial genomic signatures of adaptation. Alcohol-tolerant E. faecium accumulated mutations in genes involved in carbohydrate uptake and metabolism. Mutagenesis confirmed the roles of these genes in the tolerance of E. faecium to isopropanol.
The researchers suggest suggest that bacterial adaptation is complicating infection control recommendations, necessitating additional procedures to prevent E. faecium from spreading in hospital settings.
Reference: Pidot SJ, Gao W, Buultjens AH, et al. Increasing Tolerance of Hospital Enterococcus faecium to Handwash Alcohols. Science Translational Medicine. Aug 1, 2018: Vol. 10, Issue 452.
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