Dissecting the Molecular Basis for Emerging Alcohol Tolerance in Vre

Grant number: 1084015 | Funding period: 2015 - 2018

Completed

Abstract

Infections caused by vancomycin resistant Enterococcus faecium (VREfm) are a major and growing problem in health care facilities around Australia. We have observed that VREfm is becoming significantly more resistant to killing by alcohol, probably due the increasing use of alcohol-based hand wash products. This project will identify how VREfm is becoming alcohol tolerant, knowledge that will be used to develop alternative disinfection methods or other intervention strategies to stop its spread.

Related publications (2)

Increasing tolerance of hospital Enterococcus faecium to handwash alcohols

SJ Pidot, W Gao, AH Buultjens, IR Monk, R Guerillot, GP Carter, JYH Lee, MMC Lam, ML Grayson, SA Ballard, AA Mahony, EA Grabsch, D Kotsanas, TM Korman, GW Coombs, JO Robinson, AG Da Silva, T Seemann, BP Howden, PDR Johnson

2018-08-01

Alcohol-based disinfectants and particularly hand rubs are a key way to control hospital infections worldwide. Such disinfectants ..

Evolutionary origins of the emergent ST796 clone of vancomycin resistant Enterococcus faecium

AH Buultjens, MMC Lam, S Ballard, IR Monk, AA Mahony, EA Grabsch, ML Grayson, S Pang, GW Coombs, JO Robinson, T Seemann, PDR Johnson, BP Howden, TP Stinear

2017-01-01

From early 2012, a novel clone of vancomycin resistant Enterococcus faecium (assigned the multi locus sequence type ST796) was sim..

University of Melbourne Researchers

Tim Stinear