ABSTRACT
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is intrinsically resistant to many antimicrobial drugs, making carbapenems crucial in clinical management. During July-October 2015 in the United States, we piloted laboratory-based surveillance for carbapenem-resistant P. aeruginosa (CRPA) at sentinel facilities in Georgia, New Mexico, Oregon, and Tennessee, and population-based surveillance in Monroe County, NY. An incident case was the first P. aeruginosa isolate resistant to antipseudomonal carbapenems from a patient in a 30-day period from any source except the nares, rectum or perirectal area, or feces. We found 294 incident cases among 274 patients. Cases were most commonly identified from respiratory sites (120/294; 40.8%) and urine (111/294; 37.8%); most (223/280; 79.6%) occurred in patients with healthcare facility inpatient stays in the prior year. Genes encoding carbapenemases were identified in 3 (2.3%) of 129 isolates tested. The burden of CRPA was high at facilities under surveillance, but carbapenemase-producing CRPA were rare.
Subject(s)
Carbapenems/pharmacology , Communicable Diseases, Emerging/epidemiology , Communicable Diseases, Emerging/microbiology , Pseudomonas Infections/epidemiology , Pseudomonas Infections/microbiology , Pseudomonas aeruginosa/drug effects , beta-Lactam Resistance , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Carbapenems/therapeutic use , Child , Child, Preschool , Communicable Diseases, Emerging/history , Comorbidity , Female , History, 21st Century , Humans , Infant , Male , Microbial Sensitivity Tests , Middle Aged , Pseudomonas Infections/history , Public Health Surveillance , United States/epidemiology , Young AdultABSTRACT
Pseudomonas putida bloodstream infections were reported in two preterm neonates from a special care nursery. An unopened container of preservative-free heparin flush, compounded several weeks earlier in the hospital pharmacy and from the same batch that was administered to the patients, grew P. putida with a pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) pattern identical to that of the patients' isolates. Intrinsic contamination was ruled out by the absence of similar reports from other hospitals and by sterility testing of unopened stock solutions. We investigated the in vitro persistence of P. putida in heparinized saline: even under refrigerated conditions, inocula of 10(2) and 10(3) CFU/ml exhibited growth at 21 and 35 days, respectively. These findings highlight the need for compliance with current standards of aseptic technique and quality assurance during the preparation of compounded sterile products.
