Long-term contamination of sink drains by carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales in three intensive care units: characteristics and transmission to patients.

This study aimed to describe the contamination of sink drains (SDs) with carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales (CPE) in three intensive care units (ICUs), and to assess the risk of transmission to hospitalized patients. All SDs were sampled monthly for CPE screening by culture. Rectal screening for CPE carriage was conducted weekly for hospitalized patients. CPE were isolated from 22% of SD samples. Some SDs remained colonized with the same strain for several months. No CPE acquisition occurred among hospitalized patients during the study. Certain strategies, such as systematic sampling of SDs in ICUs for screening for contamination by CPE, should be discouraged apart from during outbreaks.