Antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria pose an increasing threat in Denmark. Bacteria known as carbapenemase-producing organisms and vancomycin-resistant enterococci infect patients admitted to hospital, causing infections that are difficult to treat.

To prevent infection, it is necessary to compare the DNA profiles of the bacteria, to trace the infection routes from patient to patient, and to find sources of infection in the hospital environment.

“The technique used today takes two to four weeks before results are available. In that time the bacteria spread further. We have introduced new technologies that can produce results from one day to the next,” says Professor Michael Kemp MD, consultant at the Regional Department of Clinical Microbiology, Zealand University Hospital.

There are no routine investigations of bacteria cultured from possible sources of infection in a hospital environment, and it is only rarely possible to show where the infection came from. Vancomycin-resistant enterococci cultured from patients who do not show signs of infection (healthy carriers) are not investigated either. This means that chains of infection cannot be established.

“With the support of the Vissing Foundation we want to investigate the effect of routinely including all relevant bacteria – regardless of where they were cultured, and then investigating them fast. We expect the results to show a way to reduce infections with resistant bacteria, so that in future patients can be admitted to hospital without the fear of infections that are difficult or impossible to treat with antibiotics,” says Michael Kemp.