The Health Service Executive (HSE) has begun writing to hundreds of patients who were not told they had come into contact with other patients carrying a highly antibiotic-resistant superbug. People who carry CPE are said to be “colonised” by the bug and have no symptoms. The issue has arisen with patients who left hospital before being identified as a CPE contact. Prof Martin Cormican, HSE lead for antimicrobial resistance and infection control, pointed out only a small number of the people who are CPE contacts will carry CPE. “For most of those patients who do carry CPE it will live harmlessly in the gut along with the many other gut bugs we all carry.

Source: The Irish Times October 30, 2018 03:00 UTC