Community hospitals, the setting in which most Americans receive their care, are increasingly becoming hotspots for contracting infections from drug-resistant E. coli bacteria, according to an Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology study.
"The lack of active screening for ESBL-producing bacteria in the majority of American hospitals means that infection prevention measures, such as contact isolation and patient cohorting, are not applied to patients who do not have symptoms, but who may be colonized with the bacteria," Joshua Thaden, MD, PhD, a lead author of the study and fellow in the division of Infectious Diseases at Duke University Medical Center, said in a statement. "These 'silently' colonized patients increase the risk of transmission to vulnerable patients via healthcare workers or environmental contamination, compromising safety and quality of care."
Researchers found between 2009 and 2014, the number of incidents of E. coli infections per 100,000 patients increased from 5.28 to 10.5 infections per year across 26 community hospitals in the southeastern U.S. According to the study, the incidence of these types of infections is now surpassing that of other bacteria, like Klebsiella pneumoniae, which is responsible for UTIs and many surgical site infections. While most E. coli-related infections still occur in the larger healthcare system, the authors note the incidence of community-associated infections is rising.