TRACS Liverpool Part 2
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Tracking antimicrobial resistance across care settings in Liverpool (TRACS Liverpool) Part 2: Observational cohort study
IRAS ID
320804
Contact name
Stacy Todd
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
ISRCTN Number
ISRCTN17060051
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 9 days
Research summary
Infections become drug-resistant when the bacteria that cause them adapt and change over time, developing the ability to resist the drugs designed to kill them. The result is that many antibiotics are becoming less effective at treating illnesses. Without working antibiotics, routine surgery like hip replacements, or common illnesses can become life-threatening. People are already dying from drug-resistant infections.
Previous research has shown that people in hospital or who live in care homes may be at increased risk of drug-resistant infection, but exactly why is unknown. Some resistant bacteria – like E. coli - are thought to live harmlessly in the gut in many people before they go on to cause illness in some. This suggests that spread happens when one person swallows bacteria from the gut of another. We aim to understand exactly how this happens. It could be that bacteria are transmitted from toilets to hands via sinks, and then swallowed for example; at present, we don’t know.
To understand this, we will visit three hospital wards and three care homes for a fortnight every three months. We will collect swabs from the environment (e.g. toilets, sinks), from staff and stool samples or rectal swabs from residents. We will test for resistant bacteria and will decode the bacteria’s unique genetic fingerprint using gene sequencing. We will use this to track bacteria: if we find identical bacteria in two places, this suggests transmission from one place to another. We will repeat this sampling four times to see if there are any changes over time. We will collect data from hospital and GP records about antibiotics participants have received and where they have been in the hospital.
This information will allow us to identify how and where people catch resistant bacteria, and to design interventions to stop this happening.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/NW/0343
Date of REC Opinion
17 Nov 2022
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion