title: Individual variability in finger-to-finger transmission efficiency of Enterococcus faecium clones.
abstract: A fingertip-to-fingertip intraindividual transmission experiment was carried out in 30 healthy volunteers, using four MLST-typed Enterococcus faecium clones. Overall results showed an adequate fit goodness to a theoretical exponential model, whereas four volunteers (13%) exhibited a significantly higher finger-to-finger bacterial transmission efficiency. This observation might have deep consequences in nosocomial epidemiology.
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Microbiología, Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal, Madrid, Spain; Instituto Ramón y Cajal de Investigación Sanitaria (IRYCIS), Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Rosa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: del Campo
authors.forename: Ana María
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Sánchez-Díaz
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zamora
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Torres
authors.forename: Luis María
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Cintas
authors.forename: Elvira
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Franco
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cantón
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Baquero
mesh_terms: D058491:Bacterial Load; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000382:microbiology / Q000635:transmission; D018562:Disease Transmission, Infectious; D016984:Enterococcus faecium / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D005385:Fingers / Q000382:microbiology*; D016908:Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections / Q000382:microbiology / Q000635:transmission*; D006235:Hand Disinfection; D064548:Hand Sanitizers; D006801:Humans; D014110:Touch
chemical_list: D064548:Hand Sanitizers
keywords: Bacterial transmission; enterococcal clones; hand hygiene.