Infection control measures to stop the spread of sequence type 15 OXA-23-producing Acinetobacter baumannii in a Swedish Burn Center

Objective: To describe the course of the outbreak and infection control measures to stop the spread of sequence type 15 OXA-23-producing Acinetobacter baumannii in the Burn Center of Uppsala University Hospital, between November 2014 and the end of April 2015. Methods: Compliance with hand hygiene, dress code, and cleaning routines were reviewed, the ward's environment was systematically investigated to identify potential environmental sources. Sampling routines for A. baumannii, from patients and environment, were established, and the epidemiological relationship was analysed for all carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii isolates using arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction (AP-PCR) and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Results: A total of 54 patients were treated at the burn intensive care unit during the studied, approximately five months period, and an OXA-23-producing A. baumannii was isolated from nine patients (9/54, 17%), whereof two died (2/9, 22.2%). All isolates shared identical PFGE-genotype patterns and belonged to sequence type 15; AP-PCR was eligible for prompt epidemiological investigations. Conclusions: Higher awareness and increased compliance with hand hygiene and dress code as well as intensified cleaning protocols of the environment and equipment were successfully established and likely to have led to stop the spread of sequence type 15 OXA23-producing Acinetobacter baumannii. (c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Automated summary

The study aimed to describe the outbreak of sequence type 15 OXA-23-producing Acinetobacter baumannii in the Burn Center and the infection control measures implemented to stop its spread. The results showed that increased awareness and compliance with hand hygiene, dress code, and environmental cleaning protocols successfully halted the transmission of sequence type 15 OXA23-producing Acinetobacter baumannii.