Prevalence of multidrug-resistant enterococci in a tertiary care hospital in Mumbai, India.

Introduction Enterococci are one of the major causes of nosocomial and community-acquired infections. In recent years, the evolution of antimicrobial resistance in enterococci has posed enormous challenges for clinicians. The antimicrobial therapy of enterococcal infections is complicated because of the inherent resistance shown by enterococci to several commonly used antibiotics such as cephalosporins, low-level aminoglycosides, and low-level clindamycin and perhaps more importantly, because of their acquired resistance to all currently available antibiotics, that leaves limited medicative options and results in the selection and spreading of multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains in hospitals [1,2]. Empirical use of antibiotics, absence of national guidelines for screening patients for MDR bacteria and lack of sufficient information and programs to control rapid spread of enterococci has led to increased mortality caused by enterococcal infections [3-5]. Knowledge of the antibiogram is essential to formulate therapeutic strategies for treating enterococcal infections [1]. This prospective study aimed to investigate species prevalence and extent of antimicrobial resistance among clinical isolates of enterococci in a tertiary care hospital in India.