Authors
N H O'Connell, J Powell, P Kiely, C P Dunne
Published in
The Journal of hospital infection. Oct 24, 2026. Epub Oct 24, 2026.
Abstract
The World Health Organization recognises Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales (CPE) as a global health security threat. The aim of this study is to review the molecular epidemiology of CPE in the mid-west of Ireland over a four-year period (2018 - 2022) with characterisation of CPE strains causing clusters.
A retrospective genomic and clinical surveillance study was undertaken of CPE isolates from patient and environmental sources.
426 patients yielded 542 CPE organisms; 255 (60%) were male. Isolates from screening samples predominated (504/542, 92%). 412 (96.7%) patients were from acute settings. 114 (23.4%) were known CPE contacts before detection. Citrobacter freundii complex prevalence was highest (151/542, 28%) followed by Escherichia coli (120/542, 22%). Ten carbapenemase genes were identified; blaOXA-48 (n=221) became the most prevalent by the end of the study period in comparison to a higher prevalence of blaKPC-2 (n= 315) for the first three years. 47 environmental isolates were also studied; Citrobacter freundii complex blaKPC-2 predominated again (31/47, n=66%). The genetic background of Citrobacter species and E. coli was highly diverse with ST 420 and ST38 being the predominant sequence types, respectively. Several cluster codes were assigned, suggestive of putative transmission events between patients and their environment.
In the context of new CPE detections per 10,000 admissions increasing from 5.275 in 2018 to 15.863 in 2022, ongoing screening, coupled to clinical and genomic surveillance are essential to control their spread.
PMID:
42926065
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 25 Oct 2026.
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