Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Launches Toolkit for Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae

Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) is the latest superbug to create concern with a high rate of morbidity and mortality within healthcare settings. CRE emerged in the early 2000s (possibly as early as 1999, but it was very rare). By 2013, it reached endemic levels in six states, with documentation in 42 states across the nation.

Carbapenemase-producing Klebsiella pneumonia, or KPC as it is also known, is highly resistant and was the first gram negative bacteria to produce this enzyme and cause illness in acute care settings. It is now seen together with other gram negative carbapenemase-producing bacteria in long-term acute care hospitals and nursing homes.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)  has funded the development of a CRE Control and Prevention Toolkit. It accompanies the CDC's recommendations for preventing CRE in healthcare settings. The toolkit provides guidelines for intervention across the continuum of care (including acute and long-term care) and is available on the AHRQ website at www.ahrq.gov/cretoolkit.