How microbes conquer a hospital room

In order to better prevent hospital-acquired infections and the spread of antibiotic resistance genes in the clinic, it is important to understand which bacterial pathogens are present in the environment of patients and whether the pathogen spectrum changes over time. To this end, scientists of the research group Host Septomics (head: Prof. Hortense Slevogt, MD) and the Charité Berlin have investigated the bacterial colonization of patient rooms, which were newly opened after extensive renovation, over a period of 6 months using a genomic approach. The study was conducted as part of the "KARMIN" project of the BMBF-funded research network InfectControl 2020. The results of the study were published in the journal Mircobiome.

Publication:

Klassert TE, Leistner R, Zubiria-Barrera C, Stock M, López M, Neubert R, Driesch D, Gastmeier P, Slevogt H. (2021) Bacterial colonization dynamics and antibiotic resistance gene dissemination in the hospital environment after first patient occupancy: a longitudinal metagenetic study. Microbiome 9(1):169. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-021-01109-7