Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium and the emergence of new sequence types associated with hospital infection

Abstract

Enterococcus faecium is a major species in infections by vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE). New variants of the pathogen have emerged and become dominant in healthcare settings. Two such examples, vanB ST796 and vanA ST1421 sequence types, originally arose in Australia and proceeded to cause VRE outbreaks in other countries. Of concern is the detection in Europe of vancomycin variable enterococci (VVE) belonging to ST1421 that exhibit a vancomycin-susceptible phenotype but can revert to resistant in the presence of vancomycin. The recent application of genome sequencing for increasing our understanding of the evolution and spread of VRE is also explored here.

Keywords: Enterococcus faecium: antibiotic resistance; Multi-locus sequence typing; Vancomycin; Whole genome sequencing.