Staphylococcus aureus is one of the major causes of clinical infections and increasing mortality due to multi-drug resistance. In this study, eight drug-resistant genes, beta-lactamase, metallo-beta-lactamase, vanB, mecA, norA, qacA, qacB and qacC of S. aureus strain Mu50 (vancomycin resistant) were studied to predict the evolutionary conserved functional site residues in their protein sequence...

OBJECTIVE To perform molecular typing of vancomycin resistant Enterococcus spp. (VRE) strains endemic in various hospitals of Karachi, to characterize the mechanism of glycopeptide resistance and assess the genetic relatedness, for understanding its transmission locally. METHOD This was a cross sectional study conducted in the clinical and research laboratory of Aga Khan University Hospital (...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Enterococci, classified as group D streptococci, are the second leading cause of nosocomial infections. The incidence of enterococcal infections and species prevalent in India is not thoroughly investigated. The present study was undertaken to isolate and characterize enterococci from clinical specimens and determine the antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of these isol...

Enterococcus faecalis BM4405 was resistant to low levels of vancomycin (MIC, 16 microg/ml) and was susceptible to teicoplanin (MIC, 0.5 microg/ml). No PCR product was obtained when the total DNA of this clinical isolate was used as a template with primers specific for glycopeptide resistance genes vanA, vanB, vanC, and vanD. However, a 604-bp PCR fragment was obtained when V1 and V2 degenerate ...

VRE species are an increasingly important and universal problem in intensive care units and hematology-oncology departments due to the spread of glycopeptide resistance. Rapid and accurate identification of VRE is therefore crucial. The intent of this study was to compare the diagnostic performance of a real-time PCR test, the BD GeneOhm VanR assay (GeneXpert vanA/ vanB, Cepheid, USA), with con...

Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) are increasingly important nosocomial pathogens and screening for colonization status is a mainstay in infection control. We implemented PCR-based screening during vanA-positive Enterococcus faecium outbreaks in four university hospitals in Copenhagen, Denmark. Xpert®vanA/vanB was performed directly on rectal swabs and the vanA PCR result was used to guide...

Three vancomycin-resistant veal calf fecal streptococci, identified as Streptococcus gallolyticus (n = 2) and Streptococcus lutetiensis, were shown to harbor vanB2 Tn5382-like elements earlier described in enterococci. One S. gallolyticus strain had a 1,495-bp IS256-related element inserted in vanS(B). The vanB2 Tn5382 element present in the plasmid-free S. lutetiensis strain was transferable t...

The distribution characteristics of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) and the resistance of enterococcus isolates to various antibiotics were investigated in Yae River, which flows through Miyazaki city, Japan. The prevalence of VRE among specimens collected from the urban river basin using mEI agar was 0.9% (2 of 226 enterococcal isolates). In the 333 enterococcal isolates obtained using ...

The total number of persons infected or colonised with vancomycin-resistant enterococci mandatorily reported to the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control increased dramatically during 2007 and 2008. During a period of twenty months from 1 July 2007 to 28 February 2009, a total of 760 cases were reported compared with 194 cases reported during the entire period from 2000 to 2006. This...