The threat of nosocomial infection is ever increasing, with a high emphasis on Legionella, but this is not the only bacteria in the water system that infection control are concerned with. The ESKAPE pathogens are of particular concern to healthcare and care home properties due to the antibiotic resistant nature of the bacteria.

ALS Environmental are able to rapidly confirm all of the ESKAPE bacteria using our revolutionary MALDI-ToF confirmation technique which is both UKAS ISO / IEC17025:2005 and Drinking Water Testing Standard (DWTS) accredited. The ESKAPE bacteria are:

Enterococcus faecium
Staphylococcus aureus
Klebsiella pneumoniae
Acinetobacter baumannii
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Enterobacter species

By using our MALDI-ToF we are able to, in over 98% of cases, provide a full genus and species identification of a bacteria. This additional information is available as part of our standard service and has the added benefit of removing the presumptive stage from all microbial confirmations.

In addition to the ESKAPE pathogens, ALS Environmental are also able to isolate and identifiy:

• Stenotrophomonas Maltophilia
• Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenamase

Further bacteria of concern for health care units were raised at a recent presentation at the Legionella Control Association Open Day in October 2014; ALS Environmental are also looking at producing methods that will enable us to offer customers a rapid confirmation, via the MALDI-ToF, for these emerging pathogens including:

• Elizabethkingia meningoseptica
• Burkholderia cepacia
• Non-tuberculosis mycobacterium e.g. mycobacterium avium
• Acinetobacter baumannii

Pervinder Johal, ALS Environmental's Microbiology Operations Manager, worked on the development and validation of the MALDI-ToF confirmation approach and comments:

The ESKAPE pathogens are of particular interest to our clients due to the antibiotic resistant nature of the bacteria. All of these pathogens can cause an adverse affect in the immuno-compromised and the rapid detection and identification that the MALDI-ToF can offer will prove to be vital to infection control teams. The addition of the pathogens listed at the LCA conference will form part of our development over the coming weeks and we hope to have some news on these for customers shortly....

If you have any questions or queries with regards to the ESKAPE pathogens, Legionella or MALDI-ToF confirmation, or to request an updated quotation for these bacteria please contact us via your customer service co-ordinator or call the laboratory on 02476 42 12 13.