{"id":186,"date":"2009-03-22T22:16:52","date_gmt":"2009-03-22T22:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learn.sterilizers.com\/?p=186"},"modified":"2013-09-29T22:30:07","modified_gmt":"2013-09-29T22:30:07","slug":"cdc-recommends-aggressive-infection-control-crkp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learn.sterilizers.com\/blog\/news\/cdc-recommends-aggressive-infection-control-crkp\/","title":{"rendered":"CDC Recommends Aggressive Infection Control Against CRKP"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recently released guidance<\/a> for aggressive infection control to combat the new emerging nosocomial pathogen known as CRKP.\u00a0 Carbapenem-Resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae<\/em> is probably best known for an outbreak in Israel a few of years ago within the healthcare system there.\u00a0 It is one of many carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae<\/em> (CRE) that is within the scope of the announcement.<\/p>\n

The true extent and prevalence of this resistant strain within the environment is currently unknown, but it is more common than once thought.\u00a0 The mortality rate can only be guessed because of the relatively low number of known infection cases.\u00a0 The death rate has been observed within a range of 12.5% to as high as 44%.\u00a0 The number for a possible large outbreak in the future has been modeled and predicted for, but there is a rather large level of uncertainty.\u00a0 Regardless, the potential danger is serious.<\/p>\n

These rates of morbidity and mortality for CRKP are particularly high.\u00a0 They suggest immediate action is required to respond to the potential threat.\u00a0 Previous patterns of secondary infection within the healthcare system, especially among the critically ill patients with prolonged hospitalization, or those expose to invasive devices (for example ventilators or central venous catheters), force us to error on the side of caution.<\/p>\n

Effective sterilization and decontamination procedures are important to keep the infection rate of this antibiotic resistant bacterium as low as possible.\u00a0 Klebsiella pneumoniae<\/em>\u00a0 are gram negative bacteria that can cause pneumonia, bloodstream infections, wound or surgical site infections, and meningitis in patients being treated for other illnesses or conditions.<\/p>\n

The antibiotic resistant strain has minimal inhibitor concentrations (MICS) that are elevated.\u00a0 Yet, the levels do indicate that there is still susceptibility to some antibiotics.\u00a0 The concern is that carbapenem is often looked upon as a drug of last resort when battling resistant strains.\u00a0 This suggests that new slight mutations could result in infections for which there is very little if anything healthcare professionals can do to treat.\u00a0 There are already strains of CRE that actually produce the enzyme carbapenemase themselves, and therefore are listed amongst these other dangerous species.<\/p>\n

CDC Focuses Upon Healthcare In U.S.<\/h2>\n

One of the main reasons for issuing the guidance is that CRKP is the most common CRE species encountered within the United States.\u00a0 In other words, the relevant bug has truly gone international.\u00a0 The spread must be slowed or stopped.\u00a0 This depends upon the implementation of comprehensive infection control strategies that not only serve to identify its mode of movement within the population, but also isolate it and properly sterilize any equipment or areas affected.<\/p>\n

Another reason for the alert is that sharing of certain instruments in a hospital setting has been proven to sometimes occur.\u00a0 The FDA is working in concert with the CDC on this issue because hepatitis has recently been spread through sharing of insulin pens.\u00a0 Since ventilators and catheters are a couple of many known points for possible transmission of CRKP, sterilization of any equipment potentially used on multiple patients must be handled with care.\u00a0\u00a0 This latest CDC advice focuses professionals to keep actual hygiene practices up that meet with already published standards.\u00a0 Potential human error still remains the biggest problem that needs to be consistently overcome.<\/p>\n

Many of the affected pieces of equipment are normally sterilized using a chemical agent autoclave.\u00a0 Ethylene oxide is most commonly used type of dangerous gas for such sterilization purposes.\u00a0 Depending upon specific needs, safer alternatives might be possible.\u00a0 A free report<\/a> is available to help with making any final decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recently released guidance for aggressive infection control to combat the new emerging nosocomial pathogen known as CRKP.\u00a0 Carbapenem-Resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae is probably best known for an outbreak in Israel a few of years ago within the healthcare system there.\u00a0 It is one of many carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) that is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/learn.sterilizers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/learn.sterilizers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/learn.sterilizers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learn.sterilizers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learn.sterilizers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/learn.sterilizers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":196,"href":"https:\/\/learn.sterilizers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186\/revisions\/196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/learn.sterilizers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learn.sterilizers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learn.sterilizers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}