{"id":336,"date":"2017-09-01T08:00:41","date_gmt":"2017-09-01T13:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/?p=336"},"modified":"2017-08-18T10:14:31","modified_gmt":"2017-08-18T15:14:31","slug":"widespread-use-of-chlorhexidine-in-hospitalized-patients-does-not-promote-resistance-in-staphylococcus-aureus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/2017\/09\/01\/widespread-use-of-chlorhexidine-in-hospitalized-patients-does-not-promote-resistance-in-staphylococcus-aureus\/","title":{"rendered":"Widespread use of chlorhexidine in hospitalized patients does not promote resistance in Staphylococcus aureus"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\"><p><em>Content courtesy of Dr. Rupp.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Investigators from the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) Division of Infectious Diseases recently published reassuring data indicating that use of chlorhexidine (CHG) to bathe hospitalized patients does not lead to CHG-resistance in <em>S. aureus<\/em>.\u00a0 (Marolf CT, et al Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology 38:873-75, 2017).<\/p>\n<p>CHG is a very effective disinfectant that has been successfully utilized to prevent the spread of multi-drug resistant organisms (eg. MRSA) and prevent healthcare associated infections such as central-line associated bloodstream infections (CLA-BSI).\u00a0 Unfortunately, there is concern that widespread use of CHG will promote resistance- particularly in staphylococci in which it has been observed that multi-drug efflux pumps encoded by <em>qac A\/B<\/em> genes lead to low-level CHG resistance.<\/p>\n<p>At UNMC, over a 7.5-year period, CHG was used to bathe patients in two distinct periods that were separated by over a year when CHG was not in use.\u00a0 This served as a terrific \u201cnatural experiment\u201d to see if use of CHG led to decreased susceptibility.\u00a0 The research team tested strains of <em>S. aureus<\/em> clearly responsible for invasive nosocomial infections (bloodstream infections) for susceptibility to CHG.\u00a0 Reassuringly, no emergence of resistance (decreased susceptibility) was observed.\u00a0 In fact, the level of resistance was higher in the baseline period (when CHG was not in use) than during the study periods.<\/p>\n<p>The results of this study provide reassurance that CHG can be used broadly in hospitalized patients without selecting for CHG-resistance in <em>S. aureus<\/em>.\u00a0 However, these results do not exclude the emergence of resistance in the future and continued vigilance is warranted.<\/p>\n<p>Read the entire study at: \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/journals\/infection-control-and-hospital-epidemiology\/article\/susceptibility-of-nosocomial-staphylococcus-aureus-to-chlorhexidine-after-implementation-of-a-hospitalwide-antiseptic-bathing-regimen\/776D48E0315B4C44D2E161FD3C9B4E59\">https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/journals\/infection-control-and-hospital-epidemiology\/article\/susceptibility-of-nosocomial-staphylococcus-aureus-to-chlorhexidine-after-implementation-of-a-hospitalwide-antiseptic-bathing-regimen\/776D48E0315B4C44D2E161FD3C9B4E59<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>P.S. It should be noted that this research effort was largely conducted by an UNMC medical student!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<form name=\"s2form\" method=\"post\" action=\"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/subscribe2\/\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"ip\" value=\"216.73.216.108\" \/><span style=\"display:none !important\"><label for=\"firstname\">Leave This Blank:<\/label><input type=\"text\" id=\"firstname\" name=\"firstname\" \/><label for=\"lastname\">Leave This Blank Too:<\/label><input type=\"text\" id=\"lastname\" name=\"lastname\" \/><label for=\"uri\">Do Not Change This:<\/label><input type=\"text\" id=\"uri\" name=\"uri\" value=\"http:\/\/\" \/><\/span><p><label for=\"s2email\">Your email:<\/label><br><input type=\"email\" name=\"email\" id=\"s2email\" value=\"Enter email address...\" size=\"20\" onfocus=\"if (this.value === 'Enter email address...') {this.value = '';}\" onblur=\"if (this.value === '') {this.value = 'Enter email address...';}\" \/><\/p><p><input type=\"submit\" name=\"subscribe\" value=\"Subscribe\" \/>&nbsp;<input type=\"submit\" name=\"unsubscribe\" value=\"Unsubscribe\" \/><\/p><\/form>\r\n\n<div style=\"display: none;\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"\/voicedwhispering.php\" title=\"LwK VK EI PuWj\">LwK VK EI PuWj<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Content courtesy of Dr. Rupp. Investigators from the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) Division of Infectious Diseases recently published reassuring data indicating that use of chlorhexidine (CHG) to bathe hospitalized patients does not lead to CHG-resistance in S. aureus.\u00a0 (Marolf CT, et al Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology 38:873-75, 2017). CHG is a very [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":532,"featured_media":337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[29,3],"class_list":["post-336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-research-id","tag-unmcid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/532"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":365,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336\/revisions\/365"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}