Enhanced automated detection of outbreaks of a rare antimicrobial-resistant bacterial species

A study has developed a framework for automatic detection of clusters of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) bacteria using WHONET-SaTScan, a free tool integrated into WHONET. The researchers applied this framework to data from Japan’s Nosocomial Infections Surveillance (JANIS), a comprehensive national AMR surveillance system. The study compared the detection capabilities of different algorithms for vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) clusters. All publicly reported VRE hospital outbreaks were detected as statistical clusters using the space-time uniform algorithm in WHONET-SaTScan, while only 18.8% were detected using another algorithm. The space-time uniform algorithm was effective in identifying hospital wards affected by outbreaks attributed to specific resistance profiles. The study found a clear advantage in using the space-time uniform algorithm for detecting VRE clusters in WHONET-SaTScan based on national surveillance data and demonstrated the capability to distinguish detected clusters based on resistance profiles.