Abstract
BackgroundBronchofiberscopy, a widely used procedure for the diagnosis of various pulmonary diseases within intensive care units, has a history of association with nosocomial infections. Between September and November 2009, an outbreak caused by multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (MDR-Ab) was observed in the intensive care unit of a tertiary care hospital in Beijing, China. This study is aimed to describe the course and control of this outbreak and investigate the related risk factors.MethodsClinical and environmental sampling, genotyping with repetitive extragenic palindromic polymerase chain reaction (REP-PCR), and case–control risk factor analysis were performed in the current study.ResultsDuring the epidemic period, 12 patients were infected or colonized with MDR-Ab. Sixteen (72.7%) of twenty-two MDR-Ab isolates from the 12 patients and 22 (84.6%) of 26 MDR-Ab isolates from the bronchofiberscope and the healthcare-associated environment were clustered significantly into a major clone (outbreak MDR-Ab strain) by REP-PCR typing. Seven patients carrying the outbreak MDR-Ab strain were defined as the cases. Six of the seven cases (83%) received bronchofiberscopy versus four of the 19 controls (21%) (odds ratio, 22.5; 95% confidence interval, 2.07–244.84; P = 0.005). Several potential administrative and technical problems existed in bronchofiberscope reprocessing.ConclusionsBronchofiberscopy was associated with this MDR-Ab outbreak. Infection control precautions including appropriate bronchofiberscope reprocessing and environmental decontamination should be strengthened.
Highlights
Bronchofiberscopy, a widely used procedure for the diagnosis of various pulmonary diseases within intensive care units, has a history of association with nosocomial infections
Several nosocomial infections caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Serratia marcescens, Mycobacteria, and others have been reported to be associated with bronchofiberscopy and the reprocessing of bronchofiberscopes, such as lacking cleaning and disinfection procedures, [16] problems related to bronchoscopy suites, [17,18,19] and device defects [20,21,22]
Two multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (MDR-Ab) carriers who were admitted into the intensive care units (ICUs) before 20th September 2009 were identified by medical record review
Summary
Bronchofiberscopy, a widely used procedure for the diagnosis of various pulmonary diseases within intensive care units, has a history of association with nosocomial infections. Between September and November 2009, an outbreak caused by multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (MDR-Ab) was observed in the intensive care unit of a tertiary care hospital in Beijing, China. Multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (MDR-Ab), one of the most important healthcare-associated pathogens worldwide, causes infections such as hospital-acquired pneumonia, wound infections, meningitis, endocarditis, and bloodstream infections (BSIs) due to its prolonged environmental survival and extensive resistance to many of the currently available antibiotics, including cephalosporins, aminoglycosides, quinolones, and carbapenems [1]. In September 2009, the Department for Hospital Infection Control & Research, Institute for Disease Control & Prevention of PLA, China received a report from an ICU in a 1,200-bed hospital in Beijing that a cluster of five patients had healthcare-associated MDR-Ab–induced BSIs. an outbreak investigation was conducted between September 2009 and January 2010 to describe its course and control and find its related risk factors. This study is the first to describe a nosocomial MDR-Ab outbreak related to bronchofiberscopy
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