Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-wq2xx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T23:58:27.954Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Variation in skin and environmental survival of hospital gentamicin-resistant enterobacteria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2010

C. A. Hart ,
Marjorie F. Gibson  and
Andrea M. Buckles
C. A. Hart
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Microbiology, Royal Liverpool Hospital, Liverpool L7 8XW
Marjorie F. Gibson
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Microbiology, Royal Liverpool Hospital, Liverpool L7 8XW
Andrea M. Buckles
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Microbiology, Royal Liverpool Hospital, Liverpool L7 8XW
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

During a period when 245 patients were infected by or harboured gentamicinresistant enterobacteria, random sampling showed hand carriage in 33% of affected patients but in only 5 % of attendant staff. Only klebsiellae were isolated from the latter. Recovery was commoner from the hands of bed-ridden patients or faecal carriers and significantly more frequent for klebsiellae (37 %) and enterobacter (33 %) than citrobacter (5·6 %) and E. coli (5·0 %). Similarly, survival on forearms of volunteers was much longer for klebsiellae and enterobacter than for citrobacter or E. coli (means respectively were 70, 45, 10 and 13 min), and on dry surfaces (means respectively were 28, 26, 3 and 7h). Klebsiellae were isolated from 17 of the 56 dry environmental surfaces sampled. The presence of plasmid resistance determinants had no effect on survival times, either on the skin or following drying onto formica surfaces. On dry surfaces 9·5% of E. coli but only 1·3% of klebsiellae lost resistance to gentamiein. These findings accord well with recent experience in which gentamicin-resistant klebsiellae have been involved to a much greater extent than other resistant enterobacteria in hospital infection.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Hygiene , Volume 87 , Issue 2 , October 1981 , pp. 277 - 285
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

References

Casewell, M. W. (1980). The role of hand disinfection in specific problems today. Royal Society of Medicine (International Congress and Symposium Series) 23, 21.Google Scholar
Casewell, M. W.Dalton, M. T., Webster, M. & Phillips, I. (1977). Gentamicin-resistant Klebsiella aerogenes in a urological ward. Lancet ii, 444.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casewell, M. W. & Phillips, I. (1977). Hands as a route of transmission of klebsiella species. British Medical Journal ii, 1315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casewell, M. W. & Phillips, I. (1978). Food as a source of klebsiella species for colonization and infection of intensive care patients. Journal of Clinical Pathology 31, 845.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cooke, E. M., Pool, R., Brayson, J. C., Edmonson, A. S., Munro, M. E. & Shinebaum, R. (1979). Further studies on the sources of Klebsiella aerogenes in hospital patients. Journal of Hygiene 83, 391.Google Scholar
Cox, G. S. & Bladwin, F. (1966). The use of phage to study causes of loss of viability of Escherichia coli in aerosols. Journal of General Microbiology 44, 15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curie, K., Speller, D. C. E., Simpson, R. A., Stephens, M. & Cooke, D. I. (1978). A hospital epidemic caused by gentamiein-resistant Klebsiella aerogenes. Journal of Hygiene 80, 115.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Donovan, T. J. (1966). A klebsiella screening medium. Journal of Medical Laboratory Technology, 23, 194.Google ScholarPubMed
Haverkorn, M. J. & Michel, M. F. (1979). Nosocomial klebsiellas. II. Transfer in a hospital ward. Journal of Hygiene 82, 195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knittle, M. A., Eitzmann, D. V. & Baer, H. (1975). Role of hand contamination of personnel in the epidemiology of gram-negative nosocomial infections. Journal of Paediatrics 86, 433.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Palfreyman, J. M. (1978). Klebsiella serotyping by counter-current immunoelectrophoresis. Journal of Hygiene 81, 219.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parry, M. F., Hutchinson, J. H., Brown, N. A., Wu, C-H. & Estereller, L. (1980). Gram negative sepsis in neonates: A nursery outbreak due to hand carriage of Citrobacter diversus. Paediatrics 65, 1105.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pettit, F. & Lowbury, E. J. L. (1968). Survival of wound pathogens under different environmental conditions. Journal of Hygiene 66, 393.Google Scholar
Riser, E., Noone, P. & Howard, F. M. (1980). Epidemiological study of klebsiella infection in the special care baby unit of a London hospital. Journal of Clinical Pathology 33, 400.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Salzman, T. C., Clark, J. J. & Klemm, L. (1968). Hand contamination of personnel as a mechanism of cross-infection in nosocomial infections with antibiotic-resistant Escherichia coli and klebsiella-aerobacter. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 7, 97.Google Scholar
Shooter, R. A., Faiers, M. C., Cooke, E. M., Breaden, A. L. & O'Farrell, S. M. (1971). Isolation of Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and klebsiella from food in hospitals, canteens and schools. Lancet ii. 390.Google Scholar
Stokes, E. J. & Waterworth, P. M. (1972). Antibiotic sensitivity tests by diffusion methods. Association of Clinical Pathologists Broadsheet 55.Google Scholar
Strange, R. E. & Cox, C. S. (1976). Survival of dried and airborne bacteria. In Survival of Vegetative Microbes (ed. Gray, T. R. G. and Postgate, J. R.) 111. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Webb, S. J. (1968). Effect of dehydration on bacterial recombination. Nature 217, 1231.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed