Quarterly infection report
January 2021 to March 2021
- Number of new cases of health-care associated infection = 0
- Number of patient days = 10,125
- Infection Rate = 0/10,125 x 1,000 = 0.00
What is VRE?
Enterococci are bacteria. They are normally present in the human intestines and in the female genital tract. They are also found in the environment. These bacteria can cause infections. Vancomycin is the antibiotic often used to treat these infections. Sometimes, enterococci are resistant to this Vancomycin. These are called Vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE).
VRE have a minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) to vancomycin of ≥ 32 mcg/ml. They contain the resistance genes VAN-A or VAN-B.
How and where are VRE transmitted?
VRE is often hospital-acquired. This means patients contract VRE after being admitted into the hospital. Symptoms usually begin 72 hours after admission.
VRE is most often transmitted through the hands of health care workers in hospitals. These health care workers acquire it from contact with colonized or infected patients. This can also happen from contact after handling contaminated material or equipment.
Risk factors for VRE
Risk factors for getting VRE include:
- The severity of underlying illness.
- Presence of invasive devices.
- Prior colonization with VRE.
- Antibiotic use.
- Length of hospital stay.
VRE rate calculation
The method of calculation of the VRE bacteraemia infection rate for the reporting period (on a quarterly basis) is:
Number of nosocomial patients with laboratory identification of VRE bacteraemia / total number of patient days x 1000
Where the numerator is the total number of newly identified cases for VRE bacteraemia associated with the reporting facility, for the reporting period. The denominator is the total number of inpatient days for the reporting period. There are no exclusion criteria.