Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Vancomycin-resistant Enterococci Co-colonization

摘要

We assessed the prevalence, risk factors, and clinicaloutcomes of patients co-colonized with vancomycin-resist-ant enterococci (VRE) and methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus (MRSA) upon admission to themedical and surgical intensive care units (ICUs) of a terti-ary-care facility between January 1, 2002, and December31, 2003. Co-colonization was defined as a VRE-positiveperirectal surveillance culture with an MRSA-positive ante-rior nares surveillance culture collected concurrently.Among 2,440 patients, 65 (2.7%) were co-colonized.Independent risk factors included age (odds ratio [OR]1.03, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.01–1.05), admission tothe medical ICU (OR 4.38, 95% CI 2.46–7.81), male sex(OR 1.93, 95% CI 1.14–3.30), and receiving antimicrobialdrugs on a previous admission within 1 year (OR 3.06, 95%CI 1.85–5.07). None of the co-colonized patients wouldhave been identified with clinical cultures alone. We reporta high prevalence of VRE/MRSA co-colonization uponadmission to ICUs at a tertiary-care hospital