Outbreak of TEM-24-producing Enterobacter aerogenes in an intensive care unit and dissemination of the extended-spectrum beta-lactamase to other members of the family enterobacteriaceae

J Clin Microbiol. 1996 Jan;34(1):76-9. doi: 10.1128/jcm.34.1.76-79.1996.

Abstract

We report an outbreak of Enterobacter aerogenes in an intensive care unit (ICU) and two medicine departments that produced the extended-spectrum beta-lactamase TEM-24, which was difficult to detect by disk agar diffusion. The strains were compared by DNA restriction fragment length polymorphism after pulsed-field gel electrophoresis following cleavage with XbaI. This typing method indicated that a single strain, first isolated in the ICU, spread throughout the other medical departments as a result of patient transfer. We also observed the transfer in vivo of the plasmid encoding TEM-24 from the strain of Enterobacter aerogenes to different strains of Escherichia coli and Citrobacter freundii in the ICU. It therefore appears that the epidemic involved results from two events: dissemination of one strain of Enterobacter aerogenes and dissemination of the plasmid encoding TEM-24 among various members of the family Enterobacteriaceae.

MeSH terms

  • Anti-Bacterial Agents / pharmacology
  • Base Sequence
  • Chromosomes, Bacterial / genetics
  • Cross Infection / epidemiology
  • Cross Infection / microbiology
  • DNA Primers / genetics
  • DNA, Bacterial / genetics
  • Disease Outbreaks*
  • Drug Resistance, Microbial
  • Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field
  • Enterobacteriaceae / enzymology
  • Enterobacteriaceae / genetics
  • France / epidemiology
  • Genotype
  • Humans
  • Intensive Care Units
  • Klebsiella Infections / epidemiology*
  • Klebsiella Infections / microbiology
  • Klebsiella pneumoniae / drug effects
  • Klebsiella pneumoniae / enzymology*
  • Klebsiella pneumoniae / genetics*
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Plasmids / genetics
  • Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • beta-Lactamases / biosynthesis*
  • beta-Lactamases / genetics
  • beta-Lactams

Substances

  • Anti-Bacterial Agents
  • DNA Primers
  • DNA, Bacterial
  • beta-Lactams
  • beta-Lactamases