Vancomycin-resistant Enterococci in Intensive Care Hospital Settings
Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) have recently emerged as a nosocomial pathogen and present an increasing threat to the treatment of severely ill patients in intensive-care hospital settings. We outline results of a study of the epidemiology of VRE transmission in ICUs and define a reproductive number R0; the number of secondary colonization cases induced by a single VRE-colonized patient in a VRE-free ICU, for VRE transmission. For VRE to become endemic requires R0 >1. We estimate that in the absence of infection control measures R0 lies in the range 3-4 in defined ICU settings. Once infection control measures are included R0=0.6, suggesting that admission of VRE-colonized patients can stabilize endemic VRE.
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Digital revista |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Ministério da Saúde
1998
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| Online Access: | http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0074-02761998000500005 |
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