“One year ago, I had one of the worst experiences a hospital epidemiologist can have: a Serratia marcescens outbreak in a neonatal department with a total of 21 colonized or infected newborns. This outbreak caused headlines in all national TV channels and newspapers...”  A quote from Petra Gastmeier - Serratia marcescens: An outbreak, 2014, doi:10.3389/fmicb.2014.00081

Serratia marcescens is frequently associated with epidemics in intensive care units in particular in neonatal and pediatric units. An increasing number of outbreaks have been described in several countries recently.

To prevent outbreaks, continuous surveillance is required, with effective recovery of clinical isolates from faeces, wound exudates, respiratory and environmental samples. S. marcescens is able to survive days to months on surfaces, distilled water, and hand soap making it an important pathogen in nosocomial infections and sporadic epidemics.

For this context, CHROMagar™ has developed CHROMagar™ Serratia, the first chromogenic medium designed specifically for the detection of Serratia marcescens.

Why choose CHROMagar™ Serratia?

• Reliability: First and only chromogenic media specific for Serratia marcescens
• Performance: More than 97% sensitivity and selectivity*
• The high specificity drastically reduces the workload, compared to traditional media
• Easy reading: Intense colony colors and differentiation from other microorganisms
• Overnight results: a feature particularly important in an outbreak situation

* Data obtained from the study "Validation of Colorex™ (CHROMagar™) Serratia agar on WASP™/WAS­PLab™ in screening for Serratia marcescens in neonatal intensive care units using the ESwab™" M. Gaskin, D. Yamamura, J. Korver, 2020