Controlling an Unprecedented Outbreak with Vancomycin-Resistant in Germany, October 2015 to November 2019.

Hospital outbreaks with vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) pose a serious health threat and a challenge to infection prevention and control (IPC). We herein report on a VRE outbreak of unprecedented extent in Southern Germany (October 2015-November 2019). We used descriptive epidemiology and whole-genome sequencing (WGS) for a detailed outbreak investigation.

Synergistic effects of antimicrobial peptides and antibiotics against Clostridium difficile.

Accelerating rates of health care-associated infections caused by Clostridium difficile, with increasing recurrence and rising antibiotic resistance rates, have become a serious problem in recent years. This study was conducted to explore whether a combination of antibiotics with human antimicrobial peptides may lead to an increase in antibacterial activity. The in vitro activities of the antimicrobial peptides HBD1 to HBD3, HNP1, HD5, and LL-37 and the antibiotics tigecycline, moxifloxacin, piperacillin-tazobactam, and meropenem alone or in combination against 10 toxinogenic and 10 nontoxinogenic C.

Antibacterial activity of human defensins on anaerobic intestinal bacterial species: a major role of HBD-3.

Defensins are natural mucosal antimicrobial peptides and their broad spectrum activity against aerobic or facultative anaerobic bacteria has been well investigated. The aim of this study was to systematically examine the antibacterial activity of the small intestinal Paneth cell derived alpha-defensin HD5 and the major colonic beta-defensins HBD-1-3 against strict anaerobic intestinal bacteria. The antibacterial activity was assessed with a flow cytometric assay employing a membrane potential sensitive dye as marker for loss of cell viability.

Two episodes of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium outbreaks caused by two genetically different clones in a newborn intensive care unit.

In 2001 two outbreak episodes (January-March and June-July) caused by vancomycin-resistant E. faecium (VRE) of the VanA-type were observed at a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of a university hospital in south-west Germany. To identify the initial source and the route of transmission environmental samples were examined as well as stool samples from patients and the staff.

Surveillance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa-isolates in a neonatal intensive care unit over a one year-period.

Outbreaks of gram-negative bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa in neonatal intensive care units (NICU) can be life-threatening to pre-term infants, which are highly susceptible to serious infections with bacteria. Forty-two ventilated neonates in the NICU of the University Children's Hospital of Tuebingen were found to be colonized (n = 40) or infected (n = 2) with P. aeruginosa within a sampling period of one year.