From cognition to response: clinical challenges, antibiotic resistance mechanisms, and prevention and control strategies of Elizabethkingia meningoseptica infections

(EM), a rare but increasingly recognized Gram-negative multidrug-resistant bacterium, primarily infects neonates and immunocompromised patients, often leading to severe clinical diseases such as meningitis and sepsis. In recent years, with the increasing complexity of the medical environment, the incidence of EM infections has been on the rise, posing numerous challenges in diagnosis and treatment. This bacterium possesses complex resistance mechanisms, resulting in limited efficacy of traditional antimicrobial agents and significantly affecting patient prognosis. This article systematically reviews the epidemiological characteristics, clinical manifestations, and existing diagnostic techniques of EM, with a focus on exploring its resistance genes and mechanisms. Combining the latest genomic research findings, it analyzes the transmission routes and prevention and control difficulties of EM in the hospital environment. By integrating clinical case data, comprehensive prevention and control strategies and individualized antimicrobial treatment plans for EM infections are proposed, aiming to provide theoretical support and practical guidance for clinicians and infection control experts, and to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention levels of EM infections.