Eighty clinical microbiology laboratories in Taiwan were evaluated for proficiency in the determination of vancomycin susceptibility of enterococci. Each laboratory was given 1 vancomycin-sensitive isolate and 3 vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) isolates to determine the levels of vancomycin resistance. Among a total of 240 tests performed, 153 (63.8%) correctly determined the levels of va...

In order to determine whether hospital-based clinical laboratories conducting active surveillance for vancomycin-resistant enterococci in three San Francisco Bay area counties (San Francisco, Alameda, and Contra Costa counties) were accurately reporting vancomycin resistance, five vancomycin-resistant enterococcal strains and one vancomycin-susceptible beta-lactamase-producing enterococcus were...

AIMS To investigate the survivability of vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE) under dry starvation conditions and the fitness cost of vancomycin resistance. METHODS VRE colonies on cotton swabs were incubated at room temperature in a sterile box and cultured weekly until cultures no longer showed growth. Negative swabs inoculated into brain heart infusion (BHI) broth were subcultured to blo...

Vancomycin is one of the "last-line" classes of antibiotics used in the treatment of life-threatening infections caused by Gram-positive bacteria. Even though vancomycin was discovered in the 1950s, it was widely used after the 1980s for the treatment of infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococci, as the prevalence of these strains were increased. However, it is currently evident ...

Background & Aims: Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most common pathogens in nosocomial infections. Vancomycin is the most important therapeutic drug of choice for treatment of infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains. Therefore, vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (VRSA) or vancomycin-intermediate Staphylococcus aureus (VISA) strains are warning...

A study was conducted to determine plasmid mediated methicillin and vancomycin resistant Staphylococcus aureus along with plasmid profiling and detection of vancomycin resistance genes. This study was carried out in the Department of Microbiology and Fermentation Technology, Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture Technology and Sciences, Allahabad, India. The molecular detection of gene was ...

Pathogenic enterococci are becoming resistant to currently available antibiotics, including vancomycin, the drug of last resort for Gram-positive infections. Enterococci pose a significant public health threat, not least because of the risk of transferring vancomycin resistance to the ubiquitous Staphylococcus aureus. Vancomycin resistance is manifested by cell wall peptidoglycan precursors wit...

Antibiotic resistance in Enterococcus species causing clinical disease was examined in a point-prevalence study in 2005. Twenty-two sites around Australia collected up to 100 consecutive isolates and tested them for susceptibility to ampicillin, vancomycin, high-level gentamicin and/or high-level streptomycin using standardised methods. Results were compared to similar surveys conducted in 1995...

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 ...