Staph. capitis in NICU - Global problem or just another CoNS trick? - with Dr Alicia Demirjian

In this podcast, Martin Kiernan talks to Dr Alicia Demirjian about the issue of seemingly increasing reports of Staphylococcus capitis cases in neonates. Alicia is Consultant Epidemiologist at the Evelina Children's hospital in London and leads the antimicrobial resistance and prescribing team at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) - formerly Public Health England. Alicia has been working on this issue for a while now and we discuss the problem (and if there is one), findings to date and possible interventions. Some of the papers that we discuss are here, as is a link to the video on how to clean an incubator, a complex piece of equipment that is often still contaminated after cleaning and disinfection.

Cleaning video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELF-0MTFJfE

Papers:

Wirth, T., M. Bergot, et al (2020) Niche specialization and spread of Staphylococcus capitis involved in neonatal sepsis. Nat Microbiol, 5, 735-745. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32341568

Thorn, L. M., et al (2020) Risk factors for Staphylococcus capitis pulsotype NRCS-A colonisation among premature neonates in the neonatal intensive care unit of a tertiary-care hospital: a retrospective case-control study. Infect Prev Pract, 2, 100057. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34368703 Decalonne, M., et al. (2020) Staphylococcus capitis isolated from bloodstream infections: a nationwide 3-month survey in 38 neonatal intensive care units. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis, 39, 2185-2194. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32519215

Ory, J., et al (2019) Successful implementation of infection control measure in a neonatal intensive care unit to combat the spread of pathogenic multidrug resistant Staphylococcus capitis. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control, 8, 57. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30962919

Laurent, F. & M. Butin (2019) Staphylococcus capitis and NRCS-A clone: the story of an unrecognized pathogen in neonatal intensive care units. Clin Microbiol Infect, 25, 1081-1085. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30928561

Butin, M., et al (2019) Sources and reservoirs of Staphylococcus capitis NRCS-A inside a NICU. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control, 8, 157. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31636900

Butin, M., et al (2017) Worldwide Endemicity of a Multidrug-Resistant Staphylococcus capitis Clone Involved in Neonatal Sepsis. Emerg Infect Dis, 23, 538-539. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28221122 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5382751/pdf/16-0833.pdf

Butin, M., et al (2016) Wide geographical dissemination of the multiresistant Staphylococcus capitis NRCS-A clone in neonatal intensive-care units. Clin Microbiol Infect, 22, 46-52. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26404028 https://www.clinicalmicrobiologyandinfection.com/article/S1198-743X(15)00850-2/pdf