Identification of high-risk enterococcal clonal complexes: global dispersion and antibiotic resistance

Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium spread dramatically in hospital settings in the USA in the 1990s and reached endemicity at the turn of the century. Similarly, rising prevalence rates are currently observed in several European countries, with prevalence rates of greater than 10% reported in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current opinion in microbiology 2006-10, Vol.9 (5), p.454-460
Main Authors: Leavis, Helen L, Bonten, Marc JM, Willems, Rob JL
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ampicillin Resistance - genetics
Anti-Bacterial Agents - pharmacology
Biological and medical sciences
Biological Evolution
Cross Infection - epidemiology
Cross Infection - microbiology
Disease Outbreaks
Drug Resistance - genetics
Drug Resistance, Bacterial
Enterococcus faecium
Enterococcus faecium - classification
Enterococcus faecium - drug effects
Enterococcus faecium - genetics
Enterococcus faecium - pathogenicity
Europe - epidemiology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Genes, Bacterial - genetics
Genomic Islands
Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections - epidemiology
Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections - microbiology
Humans
Microbiology
Molecular Epidemiology
Quinolones - pharmacology
United States - epidemiology
Virulence - genetics
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Summary:Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium spread dramatically in hospital settings in the USA in the 1990s and reached endemicity at the turn of the century. Similarly, rising prevalence rates are currently observed in several European countries, with prevalence rates of greater than 10% reported in seven of these. On the basis of multilocus sequence typing (MLST), the population structure of E. faecium was elucidated and the existence of a distinct high-risk enterococcal clonal complex, designated clonal complex-17 (CC17), which is associated with the majority of hospital outbreaks and clinical infections in five continents, was revealed. This complex is correlated with ampicillin and quinolone resistance and with the presence of a putative pathogenicity island. Preliminary MLST data suggest that similar hospital-adapted complexes might also exist in E. faecalis.
ISSN:1369-5274
1879-0364
DOI:10.1016/j.mib.2006.07.001