NewsDesk @bactiman63

11 patients have been found positive with a unique epitype of the bacterium Enterobacter hormaechei . What the patients have in common is that they have taken the medicine dicloxacillin in capsules from the same manufacturer.

Denmark/CIA

Carbapenemase-producing organisms (CPO) are a group of bacteria that can be difficult to treat because they are resistant to the antibiotics normally used to treat serious infections.

From October 2022 to January 2023, 9 CPO patients with the same unique epitype have been registered: Two cases in October 2022, two cases in December 2022 and 5 cases in January 2023. The cases had no relation to each other, there was no suspicion that the infection had occurred in hospital or during travel. The epitype found was so unique and characteristic that the clinical microbiology departments were contacted to clarify the cause of the outbreak.

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Odense University Hospital’s clinical microbiology department subsequently noticed that 3 patients who had tested positive in their laboratory had received treatment with Dicillin ® capsules shortly before the outbreak bacteria was detected. They examined unopened packages of Dicillin ®  and found that the CPO bacteria could be grown from the surface of a capsule of Dicillin ®  500 mg. Furthermore, other clinical microbiology departments and the SSI were able to confirm that all patients had been prescribed Dicillin ® from the same manufacturer prior to the positive test finding of the epitype.

On this basis, the drug manufacturer Sandoz has recalled the drug Dicillin ® .

The Statens Serum Institut (SSI) has not registered any further cases with the outbreak strain, other than the two additional findings in autumn 2020.