Transmission of Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci in the Hospital Setting: Uncovering the Patient-Environment Interplay.

ABSTRACT: Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) are relevant nosocomial pathogens with an increasing incidence in the last decades. Their transmission is optimal in the hospital setting, as it offers two potential, large reservoirs that are closely related: susceptible patients and their environment. Here we investigate the role of the hospital environment in the nosocomial transmission of VRE by establishing concrete links between contaminated surfaces and colonized/infected patients in outbreak and non-outbreak settings. Environmental and patient VRE isolates were collected between 2013 and 2019 and analyzed by whole-genome sequencing (WGS), subsequent multilocus sequence typing (MLST), and core genome (cg) MLST. Pairs of isolates differing in <3 alleles were rated as closely related, making a tr

SUBMITTER: Correa-Martinez CL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7074967 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature