Brant Community Healthcare System Makes Scientific Discovery
New "VRE-Like" Bacterium Leads to Invitation to International Infectious Diseases Symposium
Brantford, ON (MARKETWIRE) - A discovery by a microbiology technical specialist at the Brant Community Healthcare System laboratory of what may prove to be a new strain of VRE-like (vancomycin resistant enterococci) bacterium - the potentially deadly superbug - has captured the attention of world-renowned scientists who gathered in Chicago, September 17-20, 2011.
"A different process in VRE detection by our laboratory staff found a VRE-like bacterium which is compelling because laboratories around the world may not be using the same methods and as a result this VRE- like bacterium may be going completely unnoticed," Dr. Tom Szakacs, Infectious Disease Specialist, Brant Community Healthcare System said. "Initial findings indicate the presence of this VRE-like strain in 15% of the cases we test."
Hospital officials emphasize that much more scientific study will be required to determine the relevance of the finding and have approached expert scientists at Public Health Ontario who are now researching the discovery.
Research to date has shown that the VRE-like organism possesses unique characteristics. According to Dr. Szakacs, "Unlike normal VRE, our laboratory studies show that this organism is killed by vancomycin, yet it grows on plates specially designed to detect VRE. Further research is required to explain the clinical significance of this organism."
Information about the new strain, dubbed 'The McConnell Strain' after Michael McConnell who made the discovery at the Brantford General Hospital laboratory, was presented at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC), where, through invited sessions, workshops, and abstracts, leading scientists across the world presented their latest research on infectious diseases and antimicrobial agents.
VRE are bacteria that live amongst the normal bacteria residing in the human intestines and may cause serious infections that are resistant to standard antibiotics. The bacteria can easily spread by human contact and hospitals must be vigilant and implement strict infection control practices.
Around the world 'superbugs' such as VRE, C.difficile (Clostridium Difficile) and MRSA (methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus) have led to outbreaks and deaths in some hospitals. In Ontario, hospitals are required to report the number of VRE bacteraemia (blood stream infections) and the Quality Management Program - Laboratory Services News (April 2011) reported that in Ontario there were 28 VRE bloodstream infections in 2010. There were no cases at the Brant Community Healthcare System.
It is fitting that experts at the Brant Community Healthcare System discovered the potentially new bacterium.
"Patient safety is a corporate priority at the Brant Community Healthcare System so we place significant emphasis on our infection prevention practices," Jim Hornell, President & CEO, Brant Community Healthcare System said. "Our laboratory staff, infection prevention & control department, the environmental service aides who clean the hospital from top to bottom and decision support team continually monitor and track how well we are doing. Our C.difficile, VRE, MRSA infection rates have been consistently low and well within provincial guidelines. Our best practices are working - we seem to be an island among ourselves protected from outbreaks that unfortunately challenge other centres."
Proper hand hygiene is imperative to prevent transmission of diseases and a music video produced by the hospital has become a viral hit on YouTube - scoring over 30,000 hits around the world. In the music video hospital physicians perform 'I Want To Wash My Hands' to the music of 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' while staff, physicians and volunteers, and a couple of cameo appearances, dance while washing their hands. View the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q9RPzLnDl0 .
Earlier this year, Canada's first multi-discipline, fully automated hospital laboratory opened at the Brant Community Healthcare System. Built at a cost of $2-million the laboratory minimizes handling and reduces the risk associated with testing patient samples, automatically retests all abnormal results and provides results to physicians as much as 40% faster.
The Brant Community Healthcare System, a fully accredited, national award winning healthcare organization with 2,300 staff, physicians and volunteers, is a teaching site of McMaster University Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine and a Hamilton-Niagara Top 10 Employer. Brantford General is a 300+ bed regional acute care health centre and the Willett, Paris is an ambulatory centre providing urgent care. The Canadian Institute for Health Information reported that the Brant Community Healthcare System has Canada's best Hospital Standardized Mortality Ratio. Canada's first custom total knee replacement surgery was completed at the Brant Community Healthcare System in December 2010 followed by the opening of Canada's first fully automated laboratory in February 2011.
SOURCE: Brant Community Healthcare System