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Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Nanomechanics of Drug-target Interactions and Antibacterial Resistance Detection
Published on: October 25, 2013
The toilet as a transmission vector of vancomycin-resistant enterococci
M A Noble1, J L Isaac-Renton, E A Bryce
1Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Vancouver Hospital and Health Sciences Centre, B.C., Canada.
Abstract:
An elderly woman, admitted to the intensive care unit of a large university teaching hospital, was found to be colonized with vancomycin-resistant enterococci leading to the temporary closure of the unit. She had acquired the organism nosocomially, most likely from an environmental source, which had been contaminated when the toilet of a former patient, also colonized with vancomycin-resistant enterococci, had become blocked and overflowed throughout his and the adjoining room. This is the first report of a hospital toilet as the transmission vector for vancomycin-resistant enterococci.
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