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Outbreaks

Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE)

As a result of extremely high occupancy rates, The Ottawa Hospital's Civic Campus is currently experiencing an increased number of cases of vancomycin-resistant enterococcus (VRE) in its inpatient units.

Enterococci are common bacteria (germs) that are normally found in the human intestine (bowels). Sometimes people develop infections from these bacteria and require treatment. Only a few antibiotics can effectively treat enterococcus infections, and one of them is vancomycin. If the enterococcus bacteria develop resistance to vancomycin (vancomycin-resistant enterococcus), this antibiotic is not able to destroy these bacteria. When this occurs, other antibiotics are used to treat VRE infections.

VRE is commonly found in hospitals and our health-care teams work hard to reduce its occurrence. When cases are detected, specials measures are put in place to reduce its spread. These include:

• Isolate patients who have VRE in private rooms
• Increased housekeeping in all patient rooms, and common areas
• Increased cleaning of patient equipment
• Increased reminders to staff, patients and visitors that frequent hand washing is the best way to stop the infection
• Prevent unnecessary traffic and congestion in the outbreak wards

What is a C-difficile Outbreak?

Definitions have been developed to assist hospitals and public health units in determining when there is an outbreak.

There are no outbreaks of C. difficile at The Ottawa Hospital at this time.