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Nosocomial outbreak of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE) ST796, Switzerland, 2017 to 2020
- Vanja Piezzi1 , Nasstasja Wassilew1 , Andrew Atkinson1 , Stéphanie D'Incau2 , Tanja Kaspar1 , Helena MB Seth-Smith3,4 , Carlo Casanova5 , Pascal Bittel5 , Philipp Jent1 , Rami Sommerstein1,6 , Niccolò Buetti7,8 , Jonas Marschall1,9
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View Affiliations Hide AffiliationsAffiliations: 1 Department of Infectious Diseases, University Hospital Bern, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland 2 Department of Infectious Diseases, Lucerne Cantonal Hospital, Lucerne, Switzerland 3 Division of Clinical Bacteriology and Mycology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland and Applied Microbiology Research, Department of Biomedicine, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland 4 Institute of Medical Microbiology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland 5 Institute for Infectious Diseases, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland 6 Department Health Sciences and Medicine, Clinic St. Anna, University of Lucerne, Lucerne, Switzerland 7 Infection Control Programme, University of Geneva Hospitals and Faculty of Medicine, Geneva, Switzerland 8 INSERM, IAME, Université Paris-Cité, Paris, France 9 Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, United StatesVanja Piezzivanja.piezzi insel.ch
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Citation style for this article: Piezzi Vanja, Wassilew Nasstasja, Atkinson Andrew, D'Incau Stéphanie, Kaspar Tanja, Seth-Smith Helena MB, Casanova Carlo, Bittel Pascal, Jent Philipp, Sommerstein Rami, Buetti Niccolò, Marschall Jonas. Nosocomial outbreak of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE) ST796, Switzerland, 2017 to 2020. Euro Surveill. 2022;27(48):pii=2200285. https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.48.2200285 Received: 29 Mar 2022; Accepted: 11 Aug 2022
Abstract
A large clonal outbreak caused by vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE) affected the Bern University Hospital group from the end of December 2017 until July 2020. We describe the characteristics of the outbreak and the bundle of infection prevention and control (IPC) measures implemented. The outbreak was first recognised when two concomitant cases of VRE bloodstream infection were identified on the oncology ward. During 32 months, 518 patients in the 1,300-bed hospital group were identified as vanB VRE carriers. Eighteen (3.5%) patients developed an invasive infection, of whom seven had bacteraemia. In 2018, a subset of 328 isolates were analysed by whole genome sequencing, 312 of which were identified as sequence type (ST) 796. The initial IPC measures were implemented with a focus on the affected wards. However, in June 2018, ST796 caused another increase in cases, and the management strategy was intensified and escalated to a hospital-wide level. The clinical impact of this large nosocomial VRE outbreak with the emergent clone ST796 was modest. A hospital-wide approach with a multimodal IPC bundle was successful against this highly transmissible strain.
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