Microbiological Surveillance in Primary Health Care : New Aspects of Antimicrobial Resistance and Molecular Epidemiology in an Ageing Population

Background The inexorable rise in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) interferes with the goals of health care services around the world, given how critical the antibacterials are in making infections treatable and surgical procedures doable. Nursing homes residents have been identified as a reservoir for AMR, possibly due to the combination of being physically and mentally frail, frequently treated with antibacterials, and frequently moved between nursing home and hospital. Microbiological surveillance is a key countermeasure against further AMR development. Yet, surveillance data is easily biased due to precision problems regarding how the data is collected and evaluated. Methods Beginning in 2008, we launched two programmes (“SHADES” and “MIDIO”) aimed to gathering AMR data in a systematic fashion from elderly nursing home residents and elderly people living in their own place of residence. In doing so, we focused on colonizing strains of the two most important nosocomial infectious agents, Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E. coli). The bacteria were collected from multiple body sites and analysed with respect to antimicrobial susceptibility and genetic diversity. Results Active surveillance of AMR showed that (i) a S. aureus isolate could be retrieved from 1 in every 2 individuals given a single round of sampling, but aggregating several rounds of sampling, this figure might reach 7 in every 10 individuals, (ii) an E. coli isolate could be retrieved from 4 in every 5 individuals, (iii) the overall prevalence of AMR was favourable when compared to the situation in many other countries, (iv) the genetic diversity of S. aureus was generally high and provided only limited evidence of clonal expansion or contraction, and (v) diabetes mellitus was one of very few patient-level factors to show an association with the degree of genetic diversity in S. aureus. Conclusions The prevalence of colonization with S. aureus and E. coli was somewhat higher than expected, but the degree of AMR was very low. The genetic diversity of S. aureus was generally high. Diabetes mellitus emerged as the only patient-level factor associated with a higher degree of genetic diversity in S. aureus