Hospital Environment–Associated Sources of Infection in Transplant Recipients

What are the sources and transmission dynamics underlying health care–associated (MAB) infections in transplant recipients?In this cohort study, whole-genome sequencing of clinical and environmental MAB isolates from 24 patients revealed that patient infections were genetically linked to isolates recovered from hospital water and sink environments. Phylogenetic and environmental analyses supported persistent environmental reservoirs rather than person-to-person transmission as the primary source of infection.These findings suggest that hospital water systems can serve as persistent reservoirs for health care–associated MAB infections and that limiting patient exposure to MABladen hospital reservoirs may reduce infection risk.

Corresponding Authors: Qingyun Liu, PhD, Department of Genetics, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 120 Mason Farm Rd, 5061 Genetic Medicine Building, Chapel Hill, NC 27599 (qingyun_liu@med.unc.edu); Anne Friedland, MD, Marsico Lung Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 125 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill, NC 27514 (aefriedl@email.unc.edu).

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