STAPHYLOCOCCUS EPIDERMIDIS AS A CAUSATIVE AGENT OF HEALTHCARE-ASSOCIATED INFECTIONS

Abstract

Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and antimicrobial resistance are two of the most important threats in contemporary medicine and represent a serious burden for the public health system. Whereas previously only regarded as an innocuous commensal microorganism of human skin, S. epidermidis is nowadays seen as an important opportunistic pathogen and the most frequent cause of nosocomial infections. S. epidermidis is the most genotypically diverse species within the genus Staphylococcus . Strains belonging to ST2, the most frequently found sequence type of hospital-associated invasive S. epidermidis are characterised by bacterial biofilm formation and resistance to methicillin amongst other antibiotics. S. epidermidis is mainly responsible for bloodstream infections and other biomedical device-related infections. Treating infections characterized with biofilm formation is problematic, additional challenge, is differentiation between actual S. epidermidis bloodstream infections versus blood samples contamination. 1. Introduction. 2. S. epidermidis characteristics. 2.1. Genome structure. 2.2. Genotypic diversity 3. Bacterial biofilm and strategies combating. 4. Antibiotic resistance. 5. Epidemiology and environmental transmission. 5.1. Genotyping methods. 6. S. epidermidis as infectious agent. 6.1. Bloodstream infections. 6.2. Neonatal sepsis. 6.3. Infective endocarditis. 6.4. Orthopedic infections. 6.5. Ophthalmic infections. 6.6. Urinary tract infections. 7. Genetic markers for virulent hospital strains detection. 8. Summary