Reik Rebecca, Tenover Fred C, Klein Eili, McDonald L Clifford
Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis. 2008 Sep;62(1):81-5. doi: 10.1016/j.diagmicrobio.2008.04.013. Epub 2008 May 27.
Despite significant concern in the health care community regarding vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), there are no estimates of the total number of VRE infections that occur each year in US hospitals. Using data from a national survey of hospital discharges and a national antimicrobial resistance surveillance system, we estimated the annual number of US hospitalization with VRE bloodstream, urinary tract, and wound or intra-abdominal infections. Because of the inexact nature of hospital discharge diagnosis coding, we made both a conservative and liberal estimate of hospitalization with VRE infection by using a variety of data sources. For the years 2003 and 2004, we conservatively estimated that there were 20777 and 20931 VRE infections, respectively; for those same years, the liberal estimates were 78330 and 85586, respectively. Because there are such a large number of hospital discharges for which an infection is coded without an organism code, it is likely that the conservative estimate is an underestimate of the true burden. These estimates highlight the importance of controlling VRE and the need to develop improved methods for tracking the burden of such infections.
尽管医疗保健界对耐万古霉素肠球菌（VRE）极为关注，但尚无关于美国医院每年发生的VRE感染总数的估计。利用来自全国医院出院情况调查和全国抗菌药物耐药性监测系统的数据，我们估算了美国每年因VRE引起的血流感染、尿路感染以及伤口或腹腔内感染而住院的人数。由于医院出院诊断编码的性质不精确，我们通过使用多种数据源，对VRE感染的住院情况进行了保守估计和宽松估计。在2003年和2004年，我们保守估计分别有20777例和20931例VRE感染；对于同一年份，宽松估计分别为78330例和85586例。由于有大量医院出院病例的感染编码中没有病原体编码，保守估计很可能低估了实际负担。这些估计凸显了控制VRE的重要性以及开发改进方法来追踪此类感染负担的必要性。
