Patients with antibiotic-resistant bacteria infections

These bacteria are some of the most common causes of urinary tract infections, intra-abdominal and bloodstream infections, and live harmlessly in the gut of humans and animals to help digest food. However, if they get into the bladder or bloodstream for example they can cause infection.

A rapid spread of CPE can pose an increasing threat to public health and modern medicine, so Public Health England has released a toolkit for acute hospitals to test all patients.

A suspected case is defined as a patient who, in the last 12 months has been:

• an inpatient in a hospital abroad
• an inpatient in a UK hospital which has problems with spread of CRE (if known)
• is a previously positive case.

There is currently no requirement for frontline staff to assess patients for CPE; however it would be beneficial to alert the receiving hospital of whether the patient has been an inpatient in a foreign hospital within the last 12 months.

Standard IPC precautions and vehicle-cleaning procedures should be followed with patients suspected of having a CPE infection - these can be found on East24.