MEDICINE: Colistin Use Linked to Outbreak of Rare Hospital Infection

Audio Journal of Medicine, September 21st, 2007 Reporting from: 47th Annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC), Chicago, 2007 Colistin Use Linked to Outbreak of Rare Hospital Infection RAMON GUEVARA, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health REFERENCE: Abstract K-1942/ICAAC Congress 2007 Chicago 16-20 September A report on a hospital outbreak involving a rare pathogen, which was presented at ICAAC, may have an important message for the whole field of infection control. Elizabethkingia Meningoseptica was found in a Los Angles hospital outbreak in 2006 and its emergence was linked to the use of colistin. So was this antibiotic selecting for the pathogen? Derek Thorne spoke with Ramon Guevara of Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.