Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci Outbreak, Germany, and Calculation of Outbreak Start

Abstract

On the basis of a large outbreak of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium in a German university hospital, we estimated costs (≈1 million Euros) that could have been avoided by early detection of the imminent outbreak. For this purpose, we demonstrate an easy-to-use statistical method.

Keywords

• vancomycin resistance
• cost analysis
• disease outbreaks
• Germany
• dispatch