CPE Contact Communications Programme
CPE is an antibiotic resistant organism, sometimes called a superbug. If you have received a letter from a hospital to advise you that you are a contact you can access information by clicking on the documents or toolkits listed at the end of the page.
People who have CPE are not usually aware of it because it lies harmlessly in the gut and does not cause any symptoms. Most people who carry it will never have any illness from carrying CPE. About 1 in every 20 people who are identified as a CPE Contact will go on to carry CPE.
We know the risk of a CPE contact developing a CPE infection is very low. If we look at 1,000 CPE contacts, we anticipate that around 50 people will become carriers of CPE. Of that group of 50 people between 2 -3 of them will go on to develop a CPE infection. It is important to know that there is still antibiotic treatment available to treat CPE infection.