Is the spread of bacteria invisible to you?

We are a small team performing rapid and economic bacterial strain typing on demand in our research lab since 2021.

Simply: in two bacterial isolates from two locations we are able to see whether they are different, or appear to be identical. If two apparently identical isolates come from two patients staying at the same ward in a particular time period, our economic technique is likely to be sufficient to confirm their identity. Therefore, no other costly techniques are needed for routine monitoring of bacterial spread. Repeated appearance of such pairs or chains of identities observed at the same ward indicates that infection prevention and control measures are failing in some way. Our experience shows that a significant part of hospital clonal spread of bacteria occurs at low intensity but steadily, mainly as colonization, which goes unnoticed by traditional infection prevention and control monitoring. Such spread creates an environment that is conducive to outbreaks of infection. In addition, the spread of antimicrobial resistance is further supported during such passaging.

​

We strive to offer effective help and expert advice to any healthcare facility interested in assessing whether any bacterial spread is occurring in their setting. IIf it is confirmed, we help decipher likely routes of spread and draw up ways to counter it. The efficacy of IPC bundles introduced following this can be evaluated by the next round of strain typing.

Vladislav Raclavský, M.D., Ph.D.

Dept. of Microbiology, School of Medicine & Dentistry, Palacky University Olomouc