Contaminated Ventilator Air Flow Sensor Linked to Bacillus cereus Colonization of Newborns

Abstract

We investigated Bacillus cereus–positive tracheal aspirates from infants on ventilators in a neonatal intensive care unit. Multilocus sequence typing determined a genetic match between strains isolated from samples from a case-patient and from the air flow sensor in the ventilator. Changing the sterilization method for sensors to steam autoclaving stopped transmission.

Keywords

• Bacillus cereus
• infant
• cluster
• colonization
• disinfection
• ventilator