Molecular epidemiology of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium clinical isolates in a tertiary care hospital in southern Thailand: a retrospective study

Phanvasri Saengsuwan; Kamonnut Singkhamanan; Siribhorn Madla; Natnicha Ingviya; Chonticha Romyasamit

doi:10.7717/peerj.11478

Molecular epidemiology of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium clinical isolates in a tertiary care hospital in southern Thailand: a retrospective study

PeerJ. 2021 May 20:9:e11478. doi: 10.7717/peerj.11478. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Phanvasri Saengsuwan¹, Kamonnut Singkhamanan¹, Siribhorn Madla², Natnicha Ingviya³, Chonticha Romyasamit⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biomedical Sciences and Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University, Hatyai, Songkhla, Thailand.
² School of Pharmacy, Walailak University, Thasala, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand.
³ Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University, Hatyai, Songkhla, Thailand.
⁴ School of Allied Health Sciences, Walailak University, Thasala, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand.

Abstract

Objective: Vancomycin-resistant enterococci are nosocomial pathogens that are responsible for commonly causing healthcare-associated infections, and they exhibit increased resistance to many antimicrobials, particularly to vancomycin. The epidemiological data available on vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) in Thailand are inadequate.

Methods: Using enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus-polymerase chain reaction (ERIC-PCR), this study investigated genes that encode antimicrobial resistance and genetic relatedness to further understand VRE prevalence. Ninety VRE isolates were collected between 2011 and 2019 from a tertiary care hospital in southern Thailand. Antimicrobial susceptibility was determined using the disk diffusion method and E-test methods. Multiplex PCR was performed to detect the van gene and virulence genes.

Results: The study showed a high prevalence of diverse multidrug-resistant VRE strains. The prevalence of VRE infection was the highest in 2014 (28 isolates, 39.4%). VRE were mostly found in the urogenital tract (26 isolates, 28.9%), followed by the digestive tract (20%), body fluid, i.e., pancreatic cyst fluid, peritoneal dialysis fluid, Jackson-Pratt (JP) drain (20%), and blood specimens (10%). Patients in medical and surgical wards had 71.1% multi-drug-resistant and 28.9% extensively drug-resistant (XDR) VRE strains, respectively. The most prevalent antibiotic resistance was to ampicillin (74.4%). Susceptibility to gentamicin and meropenem were similar (7% and 10%, respectively). Four isolates (4.4%) were resistant to colistin. Only vanA was detected among the strains. The virulence gene test showed that the detection rates of enterococcal surface protein (esp) and hyaluronidase (hyl) genes were 91.1% and 5.6%, respectively. According to ERIC-PCR analysis, 51 of 90 strains had clonality, with a similarity rate of 95%.

Conclusions: We conclude that there is a need to implement infection control practices and active surveillance. Molecular techniques can effectively detect antibiotic-resistant genes, which would allow monitoring to control VRE infection in hospitals.

Keywords: Antibiotic resistance; Enterococci; Multiplex PCR; Van genes; Virulence determinants.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the government budget of Prince of Songkla University, with a grant number of MED601339S. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.