Vancomycin-resistant Enterococci in Singaporean hospitals: 5-year results of a multi-centre surveillance programme

Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) have emerged as one of the major nosocomial antimicrobial-resistant pathogens globally. In this article, we describe the epidemiology of VRE in Singaporean public hospitals in the 5 years following the major local VRE outbreak in 2005. A passive laboratory surv...

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Veröffentlicht in:Annals of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore Singapore, 2012-02, Vol.41 (2), p.77-81
Hauptverfasser: Cai, Yiying, Chan, Joey P J, Fisher, Dale Andrew, Hsu, Li Yang, Koh, Tse Hsien, Krishnan, Prabha, Kwa, Andrea L H, Tan, Thean Yen, Tee, Nancy W S
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Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) have emerged as one of the major nosocomial antimicrobial-resistant pathogens globally. In this article, we describe the epidemiology of VRE in Singaporean public hospitals in the 5 years following the major local VRE outbreak in 2005. A passive laboratory surveillance programme identified non-duplicate VRE isolates from 7 hospitals from 2006 to 2010. Descriptive statistics and time-series analysis was performed on all clinical VRE isolates for each individual hospital as well as for the combined dataset. There were a total of 418 VRE isolates over 5 years, of which 102 isolates (24.4%) were from clinical cultures. Between 0.4% and 0.7% of all clinical enterococcal isolates were resistant to vancomycin. The overall incidence-density of VRE did not change over time in Singapore despite 2 separate outbreaks in tertiary hospitals in 2009 and 2010. Incidence-density of clinical VRE cases fell in 2 secondary hospitals, while another 2 hospitals experienced no significant VRE infections after 2008. The prevalence of VRE clinical isolates remains low in Singaporean public sector hospitals. However, the presence of at least 2 outbreaks in separate hospitals over the past 5 years indicates the need for continued vigilance in order to prevent any further increase in VRE prevalence locally.
ISSN:0304-4602
0304-4602
DOI:10.47102/annals-acadmedsg.V41N2p77