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

Abstract

AbstractBetween 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.