Metapopulation ecology links antibiotic resistance, consumption, and patient transfers in a network of hospital wards.

eLife 2020 Oct 27

filter terms:

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global threat. A better understanding of how antibiotic use and between-ward patient transfers (or connectivity) impact population-level AMR in hospital networks can help optimize antibiotic stewardship and infection control strategies. Here, we used a metapopulation framework to explain variations in the incidence of infections caused by seven major bacterial species and their drug-resistant variants in a network of 357 hospital wards. We found that ward-level antibiotic consumption volume had a stronger influence on the incidence of the more resistant pathogens, while connectivity had the most influence on hospital-endemic species and carbapenem-resistant pathogens. Piperacillin-tazobactam consumption was the strongest predictor of the cumulative incidence of infections resistant to empirical sepsis therapy. Our data provide evidence that both antibiotic use and connectivity measurably influence hospital AMR. Finally, we provide a ranking of key antibiotics by their estimated population-level impact on AMR that might help inform antimicrobial stewardship strategies. © 2020, Shapiro et al.

Citation

Julie Teresa Shapiro, Gilles Leboucher, Anne-Florence Myard-Dury, Pascale Girardo, Anatole Luzzati, Mélissa Mary, Jean-François Sauzon, Bénédicte Lafay, Olivier Dauwalder, Frédéric Laurent, Gerard Lina, Christian Chidiac, Sandrine Couray-Targe, François Vandenesch, Jean-Pierre Flandrois, Jean-Philippe Rasigade. Metapopulation ecology links antibiotic resistance, consumption, and patient transfers in a network of hospital wards. eLife. 2020 Oct 27;9