Adult inpatients are responsible for some transmission of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus to neonatal intensive care units, according to data from the St. Jude-Pediatric Infectious Diseases Research Conference covered by Healio.
Researchers studied a 2010 VRE outbreak at Dallas-based Parkland Health and Hospital System. They discovered, through collecting data on infected patients, that an endemic strain of VRE from an adult inpatient unit had been transmitted to the neonatal ICU.
In total, 6 percent of NICU infants were colonized with VRE, though no patients developed an infection and no patients died, according to the report. Antibiotic use was not a factor in whether an infant was VRE-colonized.
The mechanism through which the adult VRE strain arrived in the NICU was not evident, according to the report. "With any outbreak, you have to stress the importance of monitoring multidrug-resistant organisms and having strict adherence and reeducation about contact precautions, making sure to use standard precautions for all patients at all times," said Natasha W. Hanners, MD, one of the researchers, in the report.
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