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Background:Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a significant nosocomial pathogen in the ICU. MRSA contamination of healthcare personnel (HCP) gloves and gowns after providing care to patients with MRSA occurs at a rate of 14%–16% in the ICU setting. Little is known about whether the MRSA isolates identified on HCP gown and gloves following patient care activities are the same as MRSA isolates identified as colonizing or infecting the patient.Methods:From a multisite cohort of 388 independent patient MRSA isolates and their corresponding HCP gown and glove isolates, we selected 91 isolates pairs using a probability to proportion size (PPS) sampling method. To determine whether the patient and HCP gown or gloves isolates were genetically similar, we used 5 comparative genomic typing methods: phylogenetic analysis, spa typing, multilocus sequence typing (MLST), large-scale BLAST score ratio (LSBSR), and single-nucleotide variant (SNV) analysis.Results:We identified that 56 (61.5%) of isolate pairs were genetically similar at least by 4 of the methods. Comparably, the spa typing and the LSBSR analyses revealed that >75% of the examined isolate pairs were concordant, with the thresholds established for each analysis.Conclusions:Many of the patient MRSA isolates were genetically similar to those on the HCP gown or gloves following a patient care activity. This finding indicates that the patient is often the primary source of the MRSA isolates transmitted to the HCP, which can potentially be spread to other patients or hospital settings through HCP vectors. These results have important implications because they provide additional evidence for hospitals considering ending the use of contact precautions (gloves and gowns) for MRSA patients.

Three rapid diagnostic test panels (Verigene BC-GN, BioFire BCID, and BCID 2 [RUO]) were compared using the Desirability of Outcome Ranking Management of Antimicrobial Therapy (DOOR-MAT) to evaluate potential downstream antimicrobial prescribing decisions resulting from the panels’ different organism and resistance detection. BioFire BCID 2 (RUO) had the best mean DOOR-MAT scores.

Decisions regarding which rapid diagnostic test (RDT) for bloodstream infections to implement remain challenging given the diversity of organisms detected by different platforms. We used the desirability of outcome ranking management of antimicrobial therapy (DOOR-MAT) as a framework to compare two RDT platforms on potential desirability of antimicrobial therapy decisions. An observational study was performed at University of Maryland Medical System comparing Verigene blood culture (BC) to GenMark Dx ePlex blood culture ID (BCID) (research use only) panels on blood cultures from adult patients. Positive percent agreement (PPA) between each RDT platform and Vitek MS was calculated for comparison of on-panel targets. Theoretical antimicrobial decisions were made based on RDT results, taking into consideration patient parameters, antimicrobial stewardship practices, and local infectious diseases epidemiology. DOOR-MAT with a partial credit scoring system was applied to these decisions, and mean scores were compared across platforms using a paired t test. The study consisted of 160 unique patients. The Verigene BC PPA was 98.6% (95% confidence interval [CI], 95.1 to 99.8), and ePlex BCID PPA was 98% (95% CI, 94.3 to 99.6). Among the 31 organisms not on the Verigene BC panels, 61% were identified by the ePlex BCID panels. The mean (standard deviation [SD]) DOOR-MAT score for Verigene BC was 86.8 (28.5), while that for ePlex BCID was 91.9 (23.1) (P = 0.01). Both RDT platforms had high PPA for on-panel targets. The ePlex BCID was able to identify more organisms than Verigene, resulting in higher mean DOOR-MAT scores.

We have examined the draft genomes of five isolates from two different Klebsiella species obtained from intensive care unit patients at two geographically distributed hospitals to examine the genomic diversity of hospital acquired organisms in this understudied population., We have examined the draft genomes of five isolates from two different Klebsiella species obtained from intensive care unit patients at two geographically distributed hospitals to examine the genomic diversity of hospital-acquired organisms in this understudied population.

We have examined the draft genomes of five isolates from two different Klebsiella species obtained from intensive care unit patients at two geographically distributed hospitals to examine the genomic diversity of hospital acquired organisms in this understudied population.

Background Verigene Blood-Culture Gram-Negative is a rapid diagnostic test (RDT) that detects gram-negatives (GNs) and resistance within hours from gram stain. The majority of the data support the use of RDTs with antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) intervention in gram-positive bloodstream infection (BSI). Less is known about GN BSI. Methods This was a retrospective quasi-experimental (nonrandomized) study of adult patients with RDT-target GN BSI comparing patients pre-RDT/AMS vs post-RDT/pre-AMS vs post-RDT/AMS. Optimal therapy was defined as appropriate coverage with the narrowest spectrum, accounting for source and co-infecting organisms. Time to optimal therapy was analyzed using Kaplan-Meier and multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression. Results Eight-hundred thirty-two patients were included; 237 pre-RDT/AMS vs 308 post-RDT/pre-AMS vs 237 post-RDT/AMS, respectively. The proportion of patients on optimal antibiotic therapy increased with each intervention (66.5% vs 78.9% vs 83.2%; P Conclusions With the introduction of RDT and AMS, both proportion and time to optimal antibiotic therapy improved, especially among those with an existing ID consult. This study highlights the beneficial role of RDTs in GN BSI.

Interactions with health care workers are often thought to be associated with the spread of microbes in the hospital setting. We have examined the genomic diversity of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates from the gloves and gowns of health care workers from four hospitals in three states.

We describe the epidemiologic and microbiologic characteristics of patients co-colonized with different species of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) from 5 hospitals in 4 states. Twenty-eight of 313 patients (8.9%) were co-colonized with at least 2 different CRE species. Different species within the same patient showed identical mechanism resistance in 18/28 (64%) cases.

We conducted a laboratory simulation to evaluate the contamination of environmental surfaces when using wipe vs spray methods of personal protective equipment (PPE) decontamination. We did not observe any environmental contamination with the bacteriophage MS-2 when bleach solution spray or wipes were used for PPE disinfection., In this laboratory simulation to evaluate contamination of nearby environmental surfaces when using wipe vs spray methods of decontaminating personal protective equipment, we did not observe any environmental contamination with bacteriophage MS-2 (Ebola virus surrogate) using bleach spray or wipes.