In a recent issue of this Journal, Jolivet and colleagues reported the first nosocomial outbreak of vanA-type vancomycinresistant Enterococcus raffinosus in France [1]. We would like to report a vanA-positive E. raffinosus outbreak that is not only the first in Belgium but, to our knowledge, is also the first to be reported in a nursing home anywhere in the world. We also tabulate a literature ...

From 1 January to 31 December 2013, 26 institutions around Australia participated in the Australian Enterococcal Sepsis Outcome Programme (AESOP). The aim of AESOP 2013 was to determine the proportion of enterococcal bacteraemia isolates in Australia that are antimicrobial resistant, and to characterise the molecular epidemiology of the Enterococcus faecium isolates. Of the 826 unique episodes ...

The total synthesis of two key analogues of vancomycin containing single-atom exchanges in the binding pocket (residue 4 amidine and thioamide) are disclosed as well as their peripherally modified (4-chlorobiphenyl)methyl (CBP) derivatives. Their assessment indicates that combined pocket amidine and CBP peripherally modified analogues exhibit a remarkable spectrum of antimicrobial activity (VSS...

Enterococcus members are becoming increasingly important agents of human disease, largely because of their resistance to antimicrobial agents. Because of their resistance to penicillins and cephalosporins of several activity ranges, the acquisition of high-level resistance to aminoglycosides, and now the emergence of vancomycin resistance, these bacteria are often involved in serious superinfec...

INTRODUCTION Laboratory-based surveillance is an important component in the control of vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE). METHODS The study aimed to evaluate real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) (genes vanA-vanB) for VRE detection on 115 swabs from patients included in a surveillance program. RESULTS Sensitivity of RT-PCR was similar to primary culture (75% and 79.5%, respectiv...

A novel glycylcycline agent, tigecycline (GAR-936), was evaluated in vivo in the mouse model of peritonitis against three Enterococcus faecalis and four Enterococcus faecium isolates with different susceptibilities to vancomycin and tetracyclines, all of which were inhibited by </=0.125 micro g of tigecycline/ml. Using a single subcutaneous dose, tigecycline displayed a protective effect (50% p...

We evaluated the new automated VITEK 2 system (bioMérieux) for the identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing of enterococci. The results obtained with the VITEK 2 system were compared to those obtained by reference methods: standard identification by the scheme of Facklam and Sahm [R. R. Facklam and D. F. Sahm, p. 308-314, in P. R. Murray et al., ed., Manual of Clinical Microbiolo...

Ceftobiprole (BAL9141) is an investigational cephalosporin with broad in vitro activity against gram-positive cocci, including enterococci. Ceftobiprole MICs were determined for 93 isolates of Enterococcus faecalis (including 16 beta-lactamase [Bla] producers and 17 vancomycin-resistant isolates) by an agar dilution method following the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute recommendation...