Isolation of Enterococcus from Various Clinical Samples and Their Antimicrobial Susceptibility Pattern in a Tertiary Care Hospital

In 1899, France Thiercelin had first used the name “Enterocoque” in a published paper (Theircelin et al., 1899). The term Enterococcus derived from their presence in the intestinal tract as a normal flora. Enterococci are gram positive bacteria that typically appear as a pair of oval cocci, the cell are arranged at an angle to each other. The term Enterococcus was used for organism that grows at 10oC and 45oC, in 6.5% NaCl, and at pH 9.6 and which survived 60oC for 30min. They are normal resident of gastrointestinal and billiary tracts and in lower numbers in the vagina and male urethra. However when they colonize where they are not normally found they may become pathogen. They are becoming increasingly important agent of human disease, largely because of their resistance to antimicrobial agents. Among several species which belong to genus Enterococcus, E. faecalis the most common isolate, have association with 8090% of human Enterococcal infection. E. faecium isolated from 10-15% of infections (Washington). Other Enterococcal species like E. malodoratous, E. avium, E.cecorum, E. gallinarum, E. raffinosus, E. casseliflavus, E. dispar, E. hirae, E. durans, and E. mundtii are infrequently isolated from human infections. Enterococci being 2nd most International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 2 (2017) pp. 1326-1332 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com