CDC: 21 ill from multidrug-resistant Salmonella outbreak tied to dairy calves
At least 21 people in eight states have been sickened by multidrug-resistant Salmonella linked to contact with dairy bull calves in an outbreak dating back to January, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.
Among 19 patients with available information, illness-onset dates range from Jan 11 to Oct 24, and ages vary from less than 1 year to 72, with a median age of 21; 62% of case-patients are female. Eight (42%) of the 19 have been hospitalized, but no deaths have been reported.
Wisconsin has reported 12 of the infections, Minnesota and South Dakota 2 each, and California, Iowa, Idaho, Missouri, and Oklahoma 1 apiece.
"Epidemiologic, traceback, and laboratory findings have linked this outbreak to contact with dairy bull calves purchased from livestock markets in Wisconsin," the CDC said. "Dairy bull calves are young, male cattle that may be raised for meat." All isolates tested were multidrug-resistant Salmonella Heidelberg.
The CDC, which said the outbreak investigation is ongoing, advised people to wash hands thoroughly after touching livestock or their environs, use dedicated clothes, and employ other preventive measures to avoid Salmonella infection.
Nov 28 CDC outbreak notice
Survey highlights resistant Enterobacteriaceae in European hospitals
A multinational survey of European hospitals is providing the first laboratory-substantiated data on the incidence of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae(CPE) across the continent, according to a news release from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
For the European Survey on CPE (EuSCAPE), national laboratories in 36 countries collected the first 10 carbapenem non-susceptible Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli clinical isolates from 455 sentinel hospitals, along with 10 susceptible same-species comparator isolates and pertinent patient and hospital information, between November 2013 and April 2014. Analysis of the isolates showed that 850 of 2,301 K pneumoniae samples (37%) and 77 of 402 E coli samples (19%) tested positive for carbapenemase production.
The most frequently detected carbapenemases in K pneumoniae were KPC enzymes, followed by OXA-48-like, NDM, and VIM. In E coli, the most frequently detected carbepenemases were OXA-48-like enzymes, followed by NDM and KPC.
Overall, the results showed that on average in Europe, 1.3 patients per 10,000 hospital admissions had a carbapenemase-producing K pneumoniae or E coli infection, with the highest incidence found in southern and southeastern Europe. In Italy, for example, the rate was 6 patients per 10,000 hospital admissions. In addition, high proportions of K pneumoniae resistant to the last-line antibiotics colistin, fosfomycin, and tigecycline were found in Italy, Romania, Turkey, and Spain. The authors note that this finding could reflect greater use and selection pressure in these countries.
The ECDC says the results "highlight the need to develop a system for public health surveillance of CPE across healthcare systems in Europe" as a tool to inform risk assessment and infection control programs.
The survey results were published earlier in the Lancet Infectious Diseases.
Nov 25 ECDC news release
Nov 17 Lancet Infect Dis study