Hidden reservoirs contribute to plasmid-mediated transmission with Dr Kalisvar Marimuthu

In this week's episode, Brett and Martin talk to Adjunct Assistant Prof Dr Kalisvar Marimuthu, who is currently a senior consultant in Infectious Diseases at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases and Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore. We discuss his recent paper that notes that over 50% of transmissions occurring in healthcare result from plasmid and not colonal spread. Traditional IPC interventions seem to work for clonal transmission, however new thinking is required to tackle the problems of plasmids.

Papers we discuss are:

1. Marimuthu K, Venkatachalam I, Koh V et al. Whole genome sequencing reveals hidden transmission of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales. Nat Commun 2022; 13: 3052. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9160272/
2. Ng DHL, Marimuthu K, Lee JJ et al. Environmental colonization and onward clonal transmission of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) in a medical intensive care unit: the case for environmental hygiene. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control 2018; 7: 51. https://aricjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13756-018-0343-z