On Friday, the White House released its plan to slow the growth of antibiotic resistance over the next five years and highlighted the success of a group of Chicago hospitals that have reduced deadly infections, according to a Reuters report.
One of the goals of the plan is to have the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reduce the rates of some of the most deadly antibiotic-resistant infections, such as carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae.
The CDC cited the Chicago Prevention Epicenter as being particularly successful in this regard. The Chicago Prevention Epicenter is one of five CDC-funded programs in the country that coordinates research between local scientists and public health officials.
The program included four long-term acute-care hospitals that had above average CRE rates and required the hospital to test all patients for CRE infections at the time of admission and again two weeks later. Patients with CRE were isolated, bathed with antiseptic and treated by healthcare workers wearing protective gowns.
At the end of the three-year program, participating hospitals saw CRE infections drop by roughly half, Michael Lin, MD, an infectious disease expert at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, told Reuters.
Dr. Lin acknowledged that the protocol might not work at the average U.S. hospital but it demonstrates how a targeted strategy can help the CDC accomplish its goals, according to the report.
More articles on CRE:
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ECRI Institute: Culture duodenoscopes to reduce CRE infections