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; TP Stinear

Journal article

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 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 disinfe..

View full abstract

University of Melbourne Researchers

Sacha Pidot Author

Ian Monk Author

Romain Guérillot Author

Glen Carter Author

Related Projects (3)

DISSECTING THE MOLECULAR BASIS FOR EMERGING ALCOHOL TOLERANCE IN VRE

Infections caused by vancomycin resistant Enterococcus faecium (VREfm) are a major and growing problem in health care facilities around Aust..

GENOMIC APPROACHES IN HUMAN HEALTH MICROBIOLOGY

This project uses latest genomic technologies to advance our understanding of how bacteria cause disease and finding new antibiotics/approac..

IMPROVING PREVENTION, TRACKING AND TREATMENT OF MAJOR HUMAN BACTERIAL PATHOGENS

This research fellowship will lead to a detailed understanding of the mechanisms by which bacteria become resistant to antibiotics and cause..

Grants

Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council

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.).