Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteria (CPE) is nowadays a major public health concern worldwide.[1] The link between international spread of antibiotic resistance and travels is well known.[2-4] Carriage

of CPE has been identified in Great Britain in travelers having been hospitalized in Pakistan or India.[5] In France, resistance of Enterobacteria to carbapenems remains uncommon but involves most often patients with a history of hospitalization abroad.[6] The first outbreak of CPE in France, that occurred in 2004 in a hospital of Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux find more de Paris (AP-HP), followed the transfer of a patient from a Greek hospital.[7] Following this outbreak, AP-HP launched a long-term program to survey and

control CPE, particularly in patients previously hospitalized in foreign countries. We describe here the emergence of CPE in AP-HP hospitals from 2004 to December 2011 and the link with cross-border exchanges. AP-HP is a public health institution administering 38 teaching hospitals (23 acute care and 15 rehabilitation/long-term care hospitals, spread over Paris, suburbs, and surrounding counties), with a total of 23,000 beds (10% of all public hospital beds in France) and serving 11.6 million inhabitants. AP-HP admits approximately selleck 1 million inpatients per year, employs 19,000 physicians, 18,500 nurses, and 29,800 assistant nurses. Local administrators and medical committees manage AP-HP hospitals, but decisions on large investments and medical developments are taken by the central administration. A local infection control team (LICT) is in charge of prevention and surveillance of hospital-acquired infections in each hospital, but actions of foremost importance for the whole institution, eg, multidrug-resistance (MDR) control program, are coordinated centrally by a multidisciplinary infection control team (head of the infection control team

[CICT], infectious disease physician, bacteriologist, epidemiologist, and nurse).[8] One second case was defined as any infected or colonized patient with CPE species. An event was defined as one index case with or without secondary cases. An outbreak was defined as at least two CPE cases (ie, one index case and at least one secondary case) occurring in a given hospital, with a clear epidemiological link (stay during the same period of time in the same unit). In 2004, following the first CPE outbreak in a hospital of AP-HP, every LICT was asked to report quickly every new CPE case to the AP-HP CICT. In 2008, based on the analysis of the CPE events identified during the first 3 years of the survey, LICTs were advised to screen for CPE every patient transferred from a foreign hospital.