Clinical epidemiology of carbapenem-intermediate or -resistant Enterobacteriaceae

Results: There were 102 cases of CIRE during the study period. The only covariate independently associated with CIRE in all multivariate analyses was the cumulative number of prior antibiotic exposures. Compared with CSE controls, the odds ratios (95% confidence interval) were 1.43 (1.19‐1.72), 2.05 (1.70‐2.47) and 2.93 (2.43‐3.53) for 1, 2 and ≥3 antibiotic exposures, respectively. The strength of this association was comparable for the hospitalized control group and analyses stratified by organism and presence of the blaKPC gene. Conclusions: A patient’s cumulative antibiotic exposure history is likely to be more important than any one specific exposure when determining the likelihood of developing a CIRE infection.