Increasing tolerance of hospital Enterococcus faecium to handwash alcohols

Sacha J Pidot; Wei Gao; Andrew H Buultjens; Ian R Monk; Romain Guerillot; Glen P Carter; Jean YH Lee; Margaret MC Lam; M Lindsay Grayson; Susan A Ballard; Andrew A Mahony; Elizabeth A Grabsch; Despina Kotsanas; Tony M Korman; Geoffrey W Coombs; J Owen Robinson; Anders Goncalves da Silva; Torsten Seemann; Benjamin P Howden; Paul DR Johnson; Timothy P Stinear

Journal article

Increasing tolerance of hospital Enterococcus faecium to handwash alcohols

Sacha J Pidot, Wei Gao, Andrew H Buultjens, Ian R Monk, Romain Guerillot, Glen P Carter, Jean YH Lee, Margaret MC Lam, M Lindsay Grayson, Susan A Ballard, Andrew A Mahony, Elizabeth A Grabsch, Despina Kotsanas, Tony M Korman, Geoffrey W Coombs, J Owen Robinson, Anders Goncalves da Silva, Torsten Seemann, Benjamin P Howden, Paul DR Johnson Show all

SCIENCE TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE | AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE | Published : 2018

DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aar6115

Abstract

Alcohol-based disinfectants and particularly hand rubs are a key way to control hospital infections worldwide. Such disinfectants restrict transmission of pathogens, such as multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecium Despite this success, health care infections caused by E. faecium are increasing. We tested alcohol tolerance of 139 hospital isolates of E. faecium obtained between 1997 and 2015 and found that E. faecium isolates after 2010 were 10-fold more tolerant to killing by alcohol than were older isolates. Using a mouse gut colonization model of E. faecium transmission, we showed that alcohol-tolerant E. faecium resisted standard 70% isopropanol surface disinfec..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Torsten Seemann Author Microbiology and Immunology

Ian Monk Author Microbiology and Immunology

Ben Howden Author Microbiology and Immunology

Romain Guerillot Author Microbiology and Immunology

Michael Grayson Author Infectious Diseases

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Grants

Awarded by National Medical Research Council of Australia

Funding Acknowledgements

This project was supported by the National Medical Research Council of Australia grant nos. GNT1027874 (to P.D.R.J.), GNT1084015 and GNT1105525 (to T.P.S.), and GNT1105905 (to B.P.H.).