This project aims to identify differences in the fecal microbiota in patients admitted to one long-term acute care hospital using 16S rRNE gene-based Illumina sequencing Raw sequence reads. Homo sapiens fecal microbiota

Healthcare-associated infections due to multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) pose an increasing public health threat. Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) are one of the most concerning MDROs because few antibiotics are effective against infections due to these pathogens [ref]. Colonization of the gastrointestinal tract by CPE typically precedes infection, making gut decolonization an attractive potential strategy for infection prevention. We aimed to determine whether the composition of the microbiota differs in CPE-colonized and non-colonized patients. Towards this end, we compared the fecal bacterial community profiles and clinical care exposures of patients with and without colonization by- bla-KPC-positive Klebsiella pneumoniae (KPC-Kp), which is the most common CPE in the U.S. We sought features that distinguished the two groups and developed indices to predict KPC-Kp colonization at the time of admission to a long-term acute care hospital (LTACH).