Moisturizing body milk as a reservoir of Burkholderia cepacia : outbreak of nosocomial infection in a multidisciplinary intensive care unit
Álvarez Lerma, Francisco (Hospital del Mar (Barcelona, Catalunya))
Coll Figa, Pedro (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Genètica i de Microbiologia)
Maull, Elena (Hospital del Mar (Barcelona, Catalunya))
Terradas, Roser (Hospital del Mar (Barcelona, Catalunya))
Segura, Concepción (Laboratori de Referència de Catalunya (El Prat de Llobregat, Catalunya))
Planells, Irene (Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron)
Knobel Freud, Hernando (Hospital del Mar (Barcelona, Catalunya))
Vázquez, Antonia (Hospital del Mar (Barcelona, Catalunya))

Date:	2008
Abstract:	Background: An outbreak of severe nosocomial Burkholderia cepacia infections in patients admitted to intensive care unit (ICU), including investigation of the reservoir, is described. Methods: Over a period of 18 days, isolates of Burkholderia cepacia were recovered from different biological samples from five patients who were admitted to a multidisciplinary 18-bed intensive care unit. Isolation of B. cepacia was associated with bacteraemia in three cases, lower respiratory tract infection in one and urinary tract infection in one. Contact isolation measures were instituted; new samples from the index patients and adjacent patients were collected; and samples of antiseptics, eau de Cologne and moisturizing body milk available in treatment carts at that time were collected and cultured. Results: B. cepacia was isolated from three samples of the moisturizing body milk that had been applied to the patients. Three new hermetically closed units, from three different batches, were sent for culture; two of these were positive as well. All strains recovered from environmental and biological samples were identified as belonging to the same clone by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. The cream was withdrawn from all hospitalization units and no new cases of B. cepacia infection developed. Conclusion: Moisturizing body milk is a potential source of infection. In severely ill patients, the presence of bacteria in cosmetic products, even within accepted limits, may lead to severe life-threatening infections.
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Published in:	Critical care, 12:R10 : 2008, ISSN 1364-8535

DOI: 10.1186/cc6778
PMID: 18237375

6 p, 291.8 KB

The record appears in these collections:
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles