A Smart Surveillance Strategy for Carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Environment

Surveillance

Transmission

Research Project: 2020-01-15 - 2024-03-01
Total sum awarded: €813 658

Pseudomonas aeruginosa causes severe infections in hospitalized patients. The worldwide emergence of carbapenem-resistant P. aeruginosa (CR-PA) makes infections by these pathogens almost untreatable. The World Health Organization now ranks CR-PA highest in the list of ‘urgent threats’. Information for action to prevent further emergence has to come from insight into sources and transmission routes through smart surveillance. At present, a smart surveillance strategy is not available for CR-PA. The aim of this project is to develop a globally-applicable smart surveillance strategy to guide action against the spread of CR-PA. Since P. aeruginosa prefers moist niches, we will focus on the human-water interface. First, highly-sensitive methods to detect CR-PA in specific environmental and human niches will be developed. Subsequently, CR-PA will be collected in three study sites with increasing prevalences of CR-PA, increasingly warmer climates, and different water situations: Rotterdam (The Netherlands), Rome (Italy), Jakarta (Indonesia). CR-PA will be searched for in a variety of niches in the environment outside and inside the hospital, and in healthy humans and hospitalized patients. Whole genome sequencing will be performed to compare the CR-PA from different sources and identify transmission routes. Our project will provide insight into the relative contribution of the different potential reservoirs of CR-PA to its spread in different settings which will be used for the development of a globally-applicable surveillance strategy for CR-PA to guide preventive actions.

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  • Juliëtte Severin, Erasmus MC University Medical Center, Netherlands (Coordinator)
  • Heike Schmitt, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Netherlands (Partner)
  • Anis Karuniawati, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Indonesia, Indonesia (Partner)
  • Maurizio Sanguinetti / Enrico Girardi, IRCCS Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli, Italy (Partner)
  • Bas van der Zaan, Deltares, Netherlands (Partner)
  • Roger Levesque, University of Laval, Canada (Partner)

Pseudomonas aeruginosa causes severe infections in hospitalized patients. Carbapenem antibiotics are among the most effective antibiotics for treating P. aeruginosa infections. The worldwide emergence of carbapenem-resistant P. aeruginosa (CR-PA) makes infections by these pathogens almost untreatable. The World Health Organization now ranks CR-PA highest in the list of ‘urgent threats’. Information for action to prevent further emergence has to come from insight into sources and transmission routes through smart surveillance. At present, a smart surveillance strategy is not available for CR-PA. The aim of this project is to develop a globally-applicable smart surveillance strategy to guide action against the spread of CR-PA. Since P. aeruginosa prefers moist niches, we will focus on the human-water interface. First, highly-sensitive methods to detect CR-PA in specific environmental and human niches will be developed. Subsequently, CRPA will be collected in three study sites with increasing prevalences of CR-PA, increasingly warmer climates, and different water situations: Rotterdam (The Netherlands), Rome (Italy), Jakarta (Indonesia). CR-PA will be searched for in a variety of niches in the environment outside and inside the hospital, and in healthy humans and hospitalized patients. Whole genome sequencing will be performed to compare the CR-PA from different sources and identify transmission routes. Our project will provide insight into the relative contribution of the different potential reservoirs of CR-PA to its spread in different settings which will be used for the development of a globally-applicable surveillance strategy for CR-PA to guide preventive actions.

Call

2019 - Call on Diagnostics and Surveillance