Controlling the spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria

A focus on preventing the introduction of antibiotic resistant bacteria from perceived high risk hospitals may be undermining efforts to control their spread across England. A study published in the journal BMC Medicine has shown that a larger number of patient transfers from lower risk hospitals may pose a greater absolute threat of spread than a small number of transfers from hospitals that have been identified as higher risk. The researchers from the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit at the University of Oxford used data from the National Health Service of England Hospital Episode Statistics to examine the number of reported cases of the antibiotic resistant microbe carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) between 2008 and 2014. The number of reported cases of CPE across all of England rose from 26 cases in 2008 to 1,649 in 2014. There were large regional differences in reported cases, which reflected patient movements between hospitals within each of the 14 referral regions across the country. However, the vast majority of patients with CPE came from within a hospital's own region, and only 1.8% came from outside the region - even if hospitals outside the region were high risk. Dr Tjibbe Donker of the Nuffield Department of Medicine, Oxford, said: 'Controlling the spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria is a high priority for health care providers, which is why hospitals are advised to screen high-risk patients for antibiotic-resistant bacteria on admission.