Regional survey of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in northern France:: epidemiological and microbiological data.

Previous prevalence studies showed that Pseudomonas aeruginosa, causing many nosocomial infections, was as frequent as Staphylococcus aureus in northern France. Therefore a laboratory-based regional network has been initiated to specify P. aeruginosa epidemiology. During two 6-month period, 25 hospital-affiliated microbiology laboratories conducted an incidence study Numbers of beds (13,913 beds all in all) and admissions (230,018 patients) were used to calculate incidence rates. Non repeat isolates (2,755) from 2, 172 patients were identified, giving an incidence rate of: 31.2 infected or/and colonized patients for 100 beds and 9.4 for 1,000 admissions. Rates varied greatly from 425.8 P. aeruginosa/year/100 intensive care beds to 42/100 surgery beds, and to 48.6/100 medicine beds. In addition, in hospitals with less than 300 beds and in those with 300 to 500 beds, the rates were 45.1 and 40.4/100 beds respectively. In larger hospitals (more than 500 beds), the rate was 67.9/100. The most frequently identified serotypes were: 0(11), 0(6), 0(4), 0(3), and 0(12). Isolates were resistant to ticarcillin (26%), ceftazidime (8.1%), imipenem (14.5%), amikacin (17%) and ciprofloxacin (36.8%); 13.4% isolates/100 beds were multi resistant In conclusion, this study confirmed the incidence of P. aeruginosa in the northern French hospitals. (C) 1999 Elsevier, Paris.