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Corona Regional Medical Center finds, eliminates drug-resistant bacteria

Press-Enterprise - 6/22/2019

Jun. 22--At least six patients in a four-month period at Corona Regional Medical Center had VRE, a drug-resistant bacteria that kills about 7% of the people who get it.

In response, the hospital moved all its patients from one ICU to the other and sterilized the entire ICU South. No current patients have the bacteria, but hospital officials reported it to Riverside County and state health agencies this week to see if other local hospitals have similar issues, hospital CEO Mark Uffer said.

About 20,000 Americans per year get VRE, which stands for Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which classified it as a "serious threat." The name refers to bacteria that are resistant to vancomycin, the drug often used to treat infections caused by enterococci.

"We do infection surveillance monitoring on every case that comes in (the hospital), so it's possible they came in with the organism," Uffer said. "People who take a lot of antibiotics and have weak immune symptoms, their immune systems just won't fight off the disease, and they become resistant to bacteria."

Barbara Cole, director of Disease Control for Riverside County, said she was reviewing the Corona hospital's report Friday, June 21, after receiving it earlier in the week.

"At this point, it appears to meet the definition of an outbreak -- two or more cases within a time period that are connected -- but they are taking appropriate containment measures and we will be monitoring, and I'm sure they will be monitoring," Cole said.

At least 2 million people per year get an antibiotic-resistant infection in the United States, and at least 23,000 people die, according to the CDC. Most VRE infections can be treated with antibiotics other than vancomycin, which is what the Corona hospital did, Uffer said.

Patients don't need to be concerned about going to the hospital, Uffer said.

Patients in the intensive care unit where VRE was found were moved to another area, then intensive cleaning began.

"We literally stripped this place to the walls and proactively brought in the ultraviolet lights and scrubbed this thing from ceiling to floor, just to make sure there's nothing there," Uffer said. "We don't have any VRE in the hospital at this time."

That's in addition to the usual protocol, which includes "terminal cleaning" whenever a patient leaves an ICU room -- a 30-to-60-minute cleaning that involves removing the bed and other moveable items and using ultraviolet to clean the room, he said.

But patients should avoid taking antibacterial medication that isn't prescribed and by finish their medicine when it is prescribed, to stop the spread of resistant "superbugs."

"As an industry, the last 30 years we've relied on antibiotics, and it's created superbugs," Uffer said.

Corona Regional Medical Center admits about 600 to 800 patients each month, Uffer said.

No other hospitals in Riverside County currently have VRE, said Cole, who said she hadn't had a chance Thursday or Friday to check when the last outbreak occurred.

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