Abstract
ABSTRACTHealthcare-associated infections represent one of the most significant challenges for modern medicine as they can significantly impact patients’lives. Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) pose the greatest clinical threat, given the high levels of resistance to carbapenems, which are considered as agents of ‘last resort’ against life-threatening infections. Understanding patterns of CPE infection spreading in hospitals is paramount to design effective infection control protocols to mitigate the presence of CPE in hospitals. We used patient electronic health records from three urban hospitals to: i) track microbiologically confirmed carbapenemase producing Escherichia coli (CP-Ec) carriers and ii) trace the patients they shared place and time with until their identification. We show that yearly contact networks in each hospital consistently exhibit a core-periphery structure, highlighting the presence of a core set of wards where most carrier-contact interactions occured before being distributed to peripheral wards. We also identified functional communities of wards from the general patient movement network. The contact networks projected onto the general patient movement community structure showed a comprehensive coverage of the hospital. Our findings highlight that infections such as CP-Ec infections can reach virtually all parts of hospitals through first-level contacts.
Publisher
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Reference38 articles.
1. Kärki, T. , Plachouras, D. , Cassini, A. & Suetens, C. Burden of healthcare-associated infections in european acute care hospitals. 169, 3–5.
2. Burden of endemic health-care-associated infection in developing countries: systematic review and meta-analysis;The Lancet,2011
3. Guest, J. F. , Keating, T. , Gould, D. & Wigglesworth, N. Modelling the annual nhs costs and outcomes attributable to healthcare-associated infections in england. BMJ Open 10 (2020).
4. Therapeutic options for carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae infections;Virulence,2017
5. English surveillance programme for antimicrobial utilisation and resistance (espaur):report 2019 to 2020. Public Health England.
Cited by
3 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献