{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,28]],"date-time":"2026-02-28T08:49:34Z","timestamp":1772268574212,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":34,"publisher":"PeerJ","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,10,10]],"date-time":"2023-10-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1696896000000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      <jats:italic>Enterococcus faecium<\/jats:italic>\n                      is an opportunistic pathogen of humans with diverse hosts, encompassing animals as well as human beings. In the past twenty years, there has been a rise in the instances of nosocomial infections that are linked to antibiotic-resistant\n                      <jats:italic>Enterococcus faecium<\/jats:italic>\n                      . The acquisition of diverse antimicrobial resistance factors has driven the global development of robust and convergent adaptive mechanisms within the healthcare environment. The presence of microorganisms in hospitalized and non-hospitalized patient populations has been significantly aided by the facilitation of various perturbations within their respective microbiomes.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Objective<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      This study aimed to determine the antimicrobial profile, demographic and clinical characteristics, along with the detection of virulence encoding genes, and to find out the clonal genetic relationship among colonized\n                      <jats:italic>E. faecium<\/jats:italic>\n                      strains.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methodology<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      A hospital-based cross-sectional study was carried out between October 2018 and March 2020 at four Khartoum locality hospitals in Sudan. The study comprised a total of 108 strains of\n                      <jats:italic>E. faecium<\/jats:italic>\n                      isolated from patients admitted to four locality hospitals in Khartoum. A self-structured questionnaire was used to gather information on sociodemographic traits. Data were analyzed using chi-square test. In all cases,\n                      <jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic>\n                      value \u2264 0.05 with a corresponding 95% confidence interval was considered statistically significant. Moreover, enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus\u2013polymerase chain reaction (ERIC-PCR) was utilized to assess the prevalence of clonal relationships, and the gel was analyzed using CLIQS software.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      In this study, the isolation rate of colonized\n                      <jats:italic>E. faecium<\/jats:italic>\n                      strains was 108\/170 (63.5%). The colonization of\n                      <jats:italic>E. faecium<\/jats:italic>\n                      and its association with various sociodemographic and clinical features was examined. 73 (67.6%) of patients had multidrug-resistant (MDR), and 22 (20.4%) had extensively drug-resistant (XDR), 73 (67.6%) of patients engaged in self-medication practices. Eighty patients (74.1%) were non-adherence to prescribed antibiotics, while 70 (64.8%) patients reported recent antibiotic usage within the 3 months. The present study suggests that demographic factors may not be significantly associated with the incidence of\n                      <jats:italic>E. faecium<\/jats:italic>\n                      infection except for patients who had a prior history of antibiotic use (\n                      <jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u00a0\u2264\u00a00.005). The analysis of virulence genes showed a high prevalence of\n                      <jats:italic>asa1<\/jats:italic>\n                      gene (22.2%) among strains. In ERIC-PCR the genetic relatedness of\n                      <jats:italic>E. faecium<\/jats:italic>\n                      showed seven identical clusters (A\u2013G) with 100% genetic similarity. This implies clonal propagation in hospitals and communities.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      This study found that the incidence of\n                      <jats:italic>E. faecium<\/jats:italic>\n                      isolated from locality hospitals in Khartoum was likely due to the spread of\n                      <jats:italic>E. faecium<\/jats:italic>\n                      clones, thereby highlighting the need for intensifying infection control measures to prevent the spreading of nosocomial infection.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.7717\/peerj.16169","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,10,10]],"date-time":"2023-10-10T03:51:56Z","timestamp":1696909916000},"page":"e16169","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Sociodemographic 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