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International audience; Background: Once present in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), multidrug resistant Staphylococcus capitis NRCS-A is able to settle and diffuse. Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of infection control (IC) interventions to reduce the spread of Staphylococcus capitis NRCS-A in a NICU. Methods: Between December 2012 and December 2017, all patients presenting positive sampling (blood, skin or catheter) to S. capitis were included, and clinical data were recorded from electronic clinical charts. The IC team has continually implemented measures of control infections (hand hygiene, standard precautions, patient contact isolation and disinfection of the inanimate environment). From May 2015, a steam cleaner was implemented in the cleaning procedure instead of disinfectant to disinfect heating tables and incubators. Four periods were determined: Period 1 (P1) before steam cleaner acquisition; Period 2 (P2) after implementation steam cleaner; Period 3 (P3) when the steam cleaner had broken down, and Period 4 (P4) when the steam cleaner was functional again. The consumption of antibiotics and the epidemiology of infections inside the NICU were investigated during the study period. Results: During the studied period, 37 infants were infected or colonized by S. capitis. The incidences of infection or colonization by S. capitis were P1 = 1.04‰, P2 = 0.55‰, P3 = 3.95 ‰ and P4 = 0‰ and were significantly different between P1-P3 and P2-P4 (p < 0.001). During the different periods, antibiotics consumption and bacterial epidemiology of the ward were stable. Conclusions: The use of steam vapor system was associated with a significantly decreased incidence of S. capitis NRCS-A infection or colonization and could constitute an effective and safe procedure to control and eradicate its diffusion inside NICUs.

International audience; The spread of carbapenemase-producing Gram-negative rods is an emerging global problem. This study describes the epidemiologic features of an outbreak caused by an environmental reservoir of OXA-48-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae caused by persistence of the bacteria during 20 months in an intensive care unit in France. This report emphasizes the importance of early environmental screening to interrupt the transmission of carbapenemase-producingEnterobacteriaceae.

III-V nanostructures have the potential to revolutionize optoelectronics and energy harvesting. For this to become a reality, critical issues such as reproducibility and sensitivity to defects should be resolved. By discussing the optical properties of MBE grown GaAs nanomembranes we highlight several features that bring them closer to large scale applications. Uncapped membranes exhibit a very high optical quality, expressed by extremely narrow neutral exciton emission, allowing the resolution of the more complex excitonic structure for the first time. Capping of the membranes with an AlGaAs shell results in a strong increase of emission intensity but also to a shift and broadening of the exciton peak. This is attributed to the existence of impurities in the shell, beyond MBE-grade quality, showing the high sensitivity of these structures to the presence of impurities. Finally, emission properties are identical at the sub-micron and sub-millimeter scale, demonstrating the potential of these structures for large scale applications., Comment: just accepted in Nano Letters, http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b00257

Resume Objectif Surveiller les infections du site operatoire (ISO) en chirurgie digestive et positionner notre etablissement dans l’interregion Sud-Est. Comparer le taux global d’ISO au taux de deux actes traceurs : la cholecystectomie et la cure de hernie (CHOL, HERN). Methode Selon la methode du CCLIN Sud-Est, une surveillance globale de toutes les interventions a ete realisee entre juin et aout 2006. Resultats Trois cent trente-huit interventions ont ete incluses. Nous avons enregistre 20 infections (5,92 %), toutes confirmees par un chirurgien. En analyse univariee, six facteurs lies a la survenue d’infection ont ete identifies : âge, classe de contamination (3,4), ASA (3–5), duree d’intervention (superieure a deux heures), caractere multiple et chirurgie carcinologique. Seuls le score ASA et la duree d’intervention etaient significatifs en analyse multivariee. Les taux d’ISO pour les actes HERN et CHOL etaient respectivement de 2,7 (2/73) et 2,9 % (2/68). Conclusion Le taux global d’infections etait eleve par rapport aux resultats du CCLIN Sud-Est 2005. Cependant, les CHU ne representaient que 8 % des interventions et ils sont habituellement plus frequentes par des patients a risque. Ainsi, le suivi global necessite de stratifier les resultats en groupes homogenes de patients (NNIS) afin de rendre les resultats comparables dans le temps et entre etablissements. Si les actes traceurs CHOL et HERN sont plus fiables a des fins de comparaisons et moins chronophages, ils ne refletent pas le taux global d’ISO.

We estimated the direct additional medical costs of nosocomial infections (NI) using a cohort study in acute and longer-term care at Nîmes University Hospital in France. Patients hospitalised between May 2001 and January 2003 with NI were considered as exposed; all others were eligible as non-exposed. Thirty patients were randomly chosen for each site of infection: respiratory tract, bloodstream, surgical site, urinary tract and other sites for a total of 150 exposed patients. Each exposed patient was matched with a non-exposed patient according to gender, age, severity of the underlying disease, diagnosis according to hospital discharge records, ward type and length of hospitalisation before inclusion. Additional direct medical costs for the exposed patients compared to the non-exposed and the difference between actual costs and the diagnosis-related group rate were measured. Costs resulting from laboratory tests, radiology, surgery and exploratory examinations, and antimicrobial agents were estimated to be Euro2421 for a respiratory tract infection, Euro1814 for a surgical site infection, Euro953 for a bloodstream infection and Euro574 for a urinary tract infection. Total additional costs of NI (direct medical costs and costs of extra length of stay) in acute care were estimated to be up to Euro3.2 million per year (95% confidence interval: 2,275,063-4,132,157). In conclusion, both prevention of avoidable NI and better estimation of the actual costs of NI should be priorities for all healthcare facilities.

The authors had for aim to monitor surgical site infections (SSI) after digestive surgery and to compare local hospital rates to those of the south-east French region. The overall rate of SSI was compared to the rate of two targeted surgeries: cholecystectomy and hernia repair (CHOL, HERN).Surveillance of all surgical procedures, following "CCLIN Sud-Est" surveillance guidelines was carried out between June and August 2006.Three hundred and thirty-eight surgeries were included. Among them, 20 SSIs (5.92%) were diagnosed and confirmed by a surgeon. The univariate analysis identified six risk factors: age, wound classes (3 or 4), ASA (3 or 4 or 5), length of surgery (greater than two hours), complexity of surgery, and carcinologic surgery. In the multivariate analysis, ASA score and length of surgery were significantly linked to SSI. SSI rates for HERN and CHOL were respectively 2.7 (2/73) and 2.9% (2/68).The overall rate of infection was high compared to the "CCLIN Sud-Est" 2005 data. However, teaching hospitals accounted for only 8% of all interventions and they usually hospitalize patients at risk. Thus, the overall follow-up requires stratifying the results in homogeneous groups of patients (NNIS) to have comparable results overtime and between hospitals. In addition, this monitoring is difficult to perform because it is a very time-consuming routine. However, if CHOL and HERN are more reliable for comparison and less time-consuming, they do not reflect the overall rate of SSI.

ObjectiveTo assess nosocomial infection (NI) as a risk factor for death and to estimate the population-attributable risk of death from NI.Design.A prospective cohort study of patients with and without NI.Setting.Nîmes University Hospital, Nîmes, France.Patients.Patients were recruited from May 7, 2001, to January 10, 2003. Patients in acute care and long-term care units who had NI were enrolled, and patients without NI were randomly selected and matched with patients with NI for age, sex, type of care (acute care vs. long-term care) and length of stay in hospital at study inclusion.Outcome Measures.Vital status within 60 days after study inclusion was assessed. We used conditional logistic regression to estimate the relative death risk from NI after adjusting for comorbidities, severity of the underlying disease, and all other confounding factors. The adjusted population-attributable risk was assessed using the Mantel-Haenszel method.Results.We recruited 1,914 patients with NI and 5,172 patients without NI. The median age of the patients with NI was 73 years; 1,045 (54.6%) were female. NI was associated with death within 60 days (adjusted odds ratio, 1.7 [95% confidence interval {CI}, 1.4—;2.2]; P-C.001). The adjusted population-attributable risk of death for all sites of infection was 1.7% (95% CI, 1.4-2.1). If we consider the NI incidence to be 3%-6% in French hospitals, the population-attributable risk of death from NI would range from 2.1% (95% CI, 1.7%-2.5%) to 4.0% (95% CI, 3.3%-4.9%).Conclusion.In this study, NI appeared to have a significant impact on mortality. Multicenter studies will be needed to confirm these results.