Prevention of possible vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus outbreak caused by infants transferred due to earthquake trauma.

Abstract

Infection control measures may be disrupted by inter- or intra-hospital transfers after major disasters. We report the possible outbreak and prevention of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus spp. (VRE) strains carried by infants transferred to our neonatal intensive care unit from another unit after the earthquake. Screening cultures (rectal swabs) were obtained from infants during hospitalisation and contact isolation was performed. We analysed the clonal analysis of VRE strains isolated from patients by pulse field gel electrophoresis.