Acute Emergence of Elizabethkingia meningoseptica Infection among Mechanically Ventilated Patients in a Long-Term Acute Care Facility
- 2 January 2010
- journal article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology
- Vol. 31 (1), 54-58
- https://doi.org/10.1086/649223
Abstract
Objective.: To describe an outbreak of infection associated with an infrequently implicated pathogen, Elizabethkingia meningoseptica, in an increasingly prominent setting for health care of severely ill patients, the long-term acute care hospital.Design.: Outbreak investigation.Setting.: Long-term acute care hospital with 55 patients, most of whom were mechanically ventilated.Methods.: We defined a case as E. meningoseptica isolated from any patient specimen source from December 2007 through April 2008, conducted an investigation of case patients, obtained environmental specimens, and performed microbiologic testing.Results.: Nineteen patients had E. meningoseptica infection, and 8 died. All case patients had been admitted with respiratory failure that required mechanical ventilation. Among the 8 individuals who died, the time from collection of the first specimen positive for E. meningoseptica to death ranged from 6 to 43 days (median, 16 days). Environmental sampling was performed on 106 surfaces; E. meningoseptica was isolated from only one swab. Three related pulsed-field gel electrophoresis patterns were identified in patient isolates; the environmental isolate yielded a fourth, unrelated pattern.Conclusion.: Long-term acute care hospitals with mechanically ventilated patients could serve as an important transmission setting for E. meningoseptica. This multidrug-resistant bacterium could pose additional risk when patients are transferred between long-term acute care hospitals and acute care hospitals.Keywords
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