Vancomycin‐Resistant Enterococci in Canada Revisited

The Emerging Epidemiology of VRE in Canada: Results of the CNISP Passive Reporting Network, 1994 to 1998

“…Although almost 95% of all VRE cases found in the PRN in Canada represented colonization, the finding of VRE infections in 4.6% of the cases is not without concern (23). In the American NNIS system, 25% of all enterococcal infections have become resistant to vancomycin over a 10-year period (3,5,21), and during 1996 and 1997, in the project Intensive Care Antimicrobial Resistance Epidemiology (ICARE), 10% of all enterococci isolated from participating hospitals were resistant to vancomycin.…”

Antibiotic Resistance in Canada at the Dawn of the New Millennium ‐‐ A Model for the Developed World?

“…A VRE Passive Reporting Network established within CNISP identified 1315 cases of VRE throughout Canada between 1994 and the end of 1998, with less than 5% of cases identified as representing infection (25). In the first year of data collection for the VRE Incidence Surveillance Program, 95 cases of VRE were reported, a rate of 0.19/1000 patient admissions and representing 0.55% of enterococcal isolates from the participating facilities (26). Despite the close physical proximity of Canada to the United States, VRE has not attained the same colonization rate in Canada and is very rarely encountered as a cause of infection.…”