Descriptive Analysis of Circulating Antimicrobial Resistance Genes in Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus (VRE) during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

COVID-19 offers ideal premises for bacteria to develop antimicrobial resistance. In this study, we evaluated the presence of several antimicrobial resistance genes (ARG) in vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) isolated from rectal swabs from patients at a hospital in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Rectal swabs were cultivated on CHROMID ® VRE (bioMérieux, Marcy-l' Étoile, France) and positive isolates were identified using MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry (Bruker Daltonics, Bremen, Germany) and further analyzed using the PCR technique for the presence of the following ARGs: van A , van B , tet(M) , tet(L) , ermB , msrA , mefA , aac(6')-Im , aph(2)-Ib , ant(4')-Ia , sul1 , sul2 , sul3 , and NDM1 . We isolated and identified 68 isolates of Enterococcus faecium and 11 isolates of Enterococcus faecalis . The molecular analysis showed 66 isolates positive for the vanA gene and eight positive for vanB . The most frequent association of ARG in VRE was vanA-tet(M)-ermB . There was no statistically significant difference between Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcus faecalis regarding ARGs. Our work proves that during the COVID-19 pandemic, highly resistant isolates of Enterococcus were present in patients in the intensive care unit; thus, better healthcare policies should be implemented for the management and control of these highly resistant isolates in the future.