Outbreak of TEM-24-producing Enterobacter aerogenes in an intensive care unit and dissemination of the extended-spectrum beta-lactamase to other members of the family enterobacteriaceae.
We report an outbreak of Enterobacter aerogenes in an intensive care unit (ICU) and two medicine departments that produced the extended-spectrum beta-lactamase TEM-24, which was difficult to detect by disk agar diffusion. The strains were compared by DNA restriction fragment length polymorphism after pulsed-field gel electrophoresis following cleavage with XbaI. This typing method indicated that a single strain, first isolated in the ICU, spread throughout the other medical departments as a result of patient transfer. We also observed the transfer in vivo of the plasmid encoding TEM-24 from the strain of Enterobacter aerogenes to different strains of Escherichia coli and Citrobacter freundii in the ICU. It therefore appears that the epidemic involved results from two events: dissemination of one strain of Enterobacter aerogenes and dissemination of the plasmid encoding TEM-24 among various members of the family Enterobacteriaceae.
Neuwirth
C
C
Laboratoire de Bactériologie, Hôpital Universitaire du Bocage, Dijon, France.
Siebor
E
E
Lopez
J
J
Pechinot
A
A
Kazmierczak
A
A
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D001483:Base Sequence; D002876:Chromosomes, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D016521:Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field; D004755:Enterobacteriaceae / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D007710:Klebsiella Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D007711:Klebsiella pneumoniae / Q000187:drug effects / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010957:Plasmids / Q000235:genetics; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D001618:beta-Lactamases / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics; D047090:beta-Lactams
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D017931:DNA Primers; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D047090:beta-Lactams; D001618:beta-Lactamases