New study aims to determine how common CRE is in critical care units and to identify potential risk factors, writes EITHNE DONNELLAN, Health Correspondent
SOME 20 CASES of a highly drug-resistant bug known as CRE have been detected in Irish patients so far this year.
The bug, which has few treatment options for those who pick it up, has up to now been associated with travel abroad, but in recent months a small number of patients who had not visited high-incidence countries have been found with CRE or Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae.
It became a notifiable disease in March, which means any hospital which detects cases must report them to the national Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC).
The centre has confirmed 20 cases have been reported to it since the beginning of the year, the majority of which were in patients who were carrying CRE or colonised by it but not infected with it.
Now the HPSC has begun a study of the prevalence of the bug in hospital intensive care units across the State. The four-week study, one of the first of its kind in Europe, commenced last week and a report on the results will be completed later in the year.
According to Dr Fidelma Fitzpatrick, the HSE’s clinical lead on healthcare associated infections, the study aims to find out how common CRE is in Irish critical care units and to look at potential risk factors that may result in a person carrying the bug.
“Once risk factors are known, additional strategies can be drawn up to prevent them,” she said.
“A multidisciplinary steering group is currently drawing up guidelines for antibiotic-resistant bacteria, including CRE, in Ireland.
“The results of this study will be used to produce Irish guidelines for the prevention and control of CRE.”
In addition, she said the outcome of the study would help decide if patients in critical care units need to be routinely screened for CRE.
It will also ensure all microbiology laboratories have experience in picking up the resistant bacteria.
In recent years, there have been an increasing number of reports of CRE from countries such as Greece, Israel, eastern US, India and Pakistan. The detection of the first four cases in the Republic was publicised last November.
At the time Dr Robert Cunney, consultant microbiologist with the HPSC, said the fact that cases of CRE had been reported here at all was “worrying”.
This was because there are few treatment options for those who pick up the infection. The risk of death from it is therefore higher, he added.