Choices were made to select the types of patients that should be screened and the types of bacteria that must be sought. The choices are, as always, the result of a compromise between what appeared absolutely necessary and, at the same time, possible. The strategy of the French recommendations is based on the rapid detection and isolation upon admission, in any medical or surgical wards, of repatriates and

travelers hospitalized for more than 24 h in foreign countries within the last year. The rapid detection of CPE and VRE digestive R428 molecular weight carriage will also help to prescribe antibiotic treatment if the patients are infected, even if difficulties are also encountered by laboratories when trying to detect carbapenemase

production during routine diagnostic procedures due to an often heterogeneous expression of resistance. To ensure the application of these recommendations by French hospitals, a directive was published recently by the French Ministry of Health.49 This directive reiterates the control measures to limit or delay the spread of CPE BIRB 796 and the need to limit the use of carbapenems. In case of an epidemic spread, control measures adopted in a national program initially designed to contain the spread of VRE40 must be applied to each outbreak caused by CPE or VRE. This consists in the rapid implementation of a step-by-step containment plan within the affected hospital; constant support by local infection control teams, regional experts and health authorities; and feedback to the medical community

at the national Montelukast Sodium level. The hospital containment strategy has the following components: (1) stopping transfer of cases and contacts within and between hospitals; (2) cohorting separately case and contact patients with dedicated healthcare workers; (3) screening all contact patients; and (4) continuous vigilance through surveillance. Other countries also recommend strict infection control measures to prevent the further spread of CPE, based on Israeli or US experiences. For example, the Nosocomial Infections Committee of Quebec recently published guidelines to prevent and control the spread of KPC-producing bacteria in acute healthcare facilities, although no strain of NDM-1 producing Enterobacteriaceae has been identified in Quebec, and only 14 KPC-producing isolates have been identified in the past.65 These recommendations are similar to the French guidelines and recommend to screen all patients admitted directly from a healthcare facility located outside of Canada in last year during 24 h or more or from a Canadian hospital setting with an outbreak situation. In the same way, the Netherlands published guidelines to control the spread of highly resistant microorganisms, specifically defined.