[Are the prolonged carrier and interhospital clonal diffusion of serotype O12 multiresistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa connected?].

In a recent study, patients infected or colonised with serotype O12 Pseudomonas aeruginosa remained carriers of this serotype for significantly longer periods of time than patients infected or colonised with other serotypes of P. aeruginosa. The present study in 12 centres of the REUSSIR network, confirms this ecological observation on 10,506 serotypable isolates in 7,183 patients. This finding supports other arguments published in the biomedical literature, suggesting that infected or colonised patients might be the primary reservoirs of a prevalent European clone of P. aeruginosa serotype O12 that resists to multiple antibiotics.