Hospitals in the United States are under increasing pressure to perform active surveillance cultures for detection of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) among newly admitted patients. Results of such cultures can then be used to direct contact precautions to prevent transmission of MRSA and VRE in the health care setting. However, using...

Oritavancin is in the final stages of clinical development for treatment of acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections. This drug has demonstrated potent activity against staphylococci (minimum inhibitory concentration [MIC] for which 90% of isolates are inhibited [MIC(90)], 0.06 μg/mL), enterococci (MIC(90), ≤ 0.008 to 0.5 μg/mL), and streptococci (MIC(90), ≤ 0.008 to 0.12 μg/mL), incl...

The aim of this study was to investigate the molecular characteristics of induced vancomycin resistance in Staphylococcus haemolyticus. Autolytic properties and phenotypic characteristics of passage-selected vancomycin-resistant S. haemolyticus strains were examined. In addition, expression of autolysis-related genes (atl, lrgAB, sarA and lytS) was investigated using the RNase protection assay ...

Ceftobiprole is a novel broad-spectrum cephalosporin that binds with high affinity to PBP 2a, the methicillin-resistance determinant of staphylococci, and is active against methicillin- and vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Ceftobiprole was compared to vancomycin in a rabbit model of methicillin-resistant S. aureus aortic valve endocarditis. Ceftobiprole and vancomycin were equally ef...

The activity of nitrofurantoin was tested against 300 isolates of Enterococcus faecium, Enterococcus faecalis, and Enterococcus gallinarum. No isolates tested were resistant to nitrofurantoin (MIC, >/=128 microg/ml), including vancomycin-resistant E. faecium isolates with vanA- and vanB-positive genotypes and vancomycin-resistant E. gallinarum isolates. We conclude that nitrofurantoin may provi...

Early detection of vancomycin-resistant enterococci is important for preventing its spread among hospitalized patients. We surveyed the ability of eight hospital laboratories in and near Monterrey, Mexico, to detect vancomycin resistance in Enterococcus spp. and found that although laboratories can reliably detect high-level vancomycin resistance, many have difficulty detecting low-level resist...

Vancomycin-resistant enterococci have emerged as major nosocomial pathogens worldwide. While antimicrobial pressure promotes nosocomial colonization with these enterococci, prolonged exposure to vancomycin may foster the transition from vancomycin resistance to vancomycin dependence. Here, we report the draft genome sequence of a vancomycin-dependentEnterococcus faeciumisolate showing partial t...

b ackground: methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (mrsa) is the one of most commonly isolated organisms from clinical samples which can cause life- threatening infections. the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance makes the treatment of these infections more complicated. in this study, we aimed to determine  the  patterns  of  antibiotic  resistance  among  mrsa  isolates  from t...