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Management of an Outbreak of Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci in the Medical Intensive Care Unit of a Cancer Center

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Hend Hanna ,
Jan Umphrey ,
Jeffrey Tarrand ,
Michelle Mendoza  and
Issam Raad
Hend Hanna*
Affiliation:
Section of Infection Control, Department of Internal Medicine Specialties, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
Jan Umphrey
Affiliation:
Section of Infection Control, Department of Internal Medicine Specialties, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
Jeffrey Tarrand
Affiliation:
Section of Infection Control, Department of Internal Medicine Specialties, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
Michelle Mendoza
Affiliation:
Section of Infection Control, Department of Internal Medicine Specialties, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
Issam Raad
Affiliation:
Section of Infection Control, Department of Internal Medicine Specialties, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
*
The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Section of Infection Control—Box 47, 1515 Holcombe Blvd. Houston, TX 77030
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Abstract

Between November 1996 and February 1997, 17 episodes of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) infection or colonization (9 infections, 8 colonizations), all with the same or a similar genomic DNA pattern, were identified in the medical intensive care unit (MICU) of a tertiary-care cancer hospital. The cases were genotypically traced to a patient who was admitted to the hospital in September 1996 and who, by December 1996, had four different admissions to the MICU. Multifaceted infection control measures, including decontamination of the environment and of nondisposable equipment, halted the nosocomial transmission of VRE in the MICU.

Type
Concise Communication
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 22 , Issue 4 , April 2001 , pp. 217 - 219
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 2001

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