Incidence of Vancomycin Resistant Enterococci Colonization in Zagazig University Pediatric ICU

Document Type : New and original researches in the field of Microbiology.

Authors

1 Pediatric Department, Benha Educational Hospital

2 Pediatric Department, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University

3 Medical Microbiology & Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University

Abstract

Background: Multidrug resistant (MDR) bacteria inside hospitals are a major health problem which prolongs the hospital stay, increases the treatment costs and worsen the prognosis of patients. Vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE) represent a group of MDR bacteria which came into the spotlight in the last decades. In Egypt, the problem is not well estimated especially in pediatric settings. Objectives: The objective of this work was to estimate the rate of VRE colonization inside Pediatric intensive care units (PICU) of Zagazig University Hospitals. Methodology: A total of 168 children admitted to PICU were surveyed for nasal and perirectal colonization by VRE. Phenotypic identification of the genus was performed and further species identification was done using PCR technique. VanA and VanB resistance genes were screened using specific primers for each. Results: Among the 168 children investigated, 47 (27.98%) were colonized by enterococci; 41 rectal and 6 nasal colonization. Only 7 isolates (14.9%) were identified as vancomycin resistant. The overall VRE colonization rate was 4.17% among the PICU children investigated. The colonization rate was significantly higher among children exceeded 7 days of hospital stay inside PICU. Thirty one (65.96%) isolates were identified as E. fecalis and 10 (21.28%) were identified as E. faecium. Six isolates (12.76%) were not identified by PCR reaction. VanA gene was detected in 4 of the VRE isolates while none of the isolates revealed VanB gene product. Conclusion: Generally the incidence of VRE colonization in the current study is considered low in comparison to other groups of MDR bacteria and to other geographic distribution.

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