Outbreak of Burkholderia cepacia bacteraemia in a tertiary care centre due to contaminated ultrasound probe gel.

BACKGROUND: Burkholderia cepacia is an important opportunistic organism in hospitalized and immunocompromised patients, particularly in cystic fibrosis.

AIMS: To describe the epidemiological investigation of an outbreak of B. cepacia bacteraemia.

METHODS: The study examined 14 patients during their admission to three intensive care units in a tertiary care hospital between January and June 2016. The outbreak involved nine (57%) female and six (43%) male patients. All patients were adults of ages ranging from 19 to 85 years with a median age of 52 years. Patients' medical charts, laboratory cultures, exposures, and central line insertion procedures were reviewed.

FINDINGS: B. cepacia was isolated from the blood cultures of 14 patients resulting from contamination of the gel applied to the ultrasound probe used to guide the insertion of a central venous catheter. Molecular pathogen typing using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis showed 95% similarity between the B. cepacia isolates from the blood of these patients and those isolated from the ultrasound gel.

CONCLUSION: Ongoing surveillance and prompt investigation of unusual disease outbreaks are vital for identifying sources of contamination of B. cepacia and protecting at-risk patients. Sound epidemiological methods are very important for identifying the source of any hospital infection outbreak.