The results of vancomycin susceptibility tests document that the drug continues to have activity against a wide variety of gram-positive pathogens. The subsequent emergence of vancomycin-resistant enterococci, the persistent failure of vancomycin therapy against strains tested as susceptible, and the more recent discoveries of vancomycin-intermediate or -resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains ...

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...

Gram-positive cocci are a major cause of nosocomial bacteraemias and are often resistant to most antibiotics. The emergence of enterococci with reduced susceptibility to vancomycin has created an urgent need for novel antibiotics to combat infections associated with these bacteria. In this study the in vitro activity of LY333328 (oritavancin), a semi-synthetic glycopeptide, was evaluated. LY333...

Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis, E. faecium and E. durans isolates with the genotype vanA were detected in 7 of 118 faecal samples (5.9%) of natural gilthead seabream recovered off the coast of Portugal, and one vancomycin-resistant isolate/sample was further characterized. The genes erm(B), tet(L), tet(M), aac(6')-aph(2"), aph(3')-IIIa and/or ant(6)-Ia were identified in most of the...

Nosocomial pathogens such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE) are the cause of significant morbidity and mortality among hospital patients. It is important to be able to assess the efficacy of control measures using data on patient outcomes. In this paper, we describe methods for analysing such data using patient-level stochastic mode...

After they were first identified in the mid-1980s, vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) spread rapidly and became a major problem in many institutions both in Europe and the United States. Since VRE have intrinsic resistance to most of the commonly used antibiotics and the ability to acquire resistance to most of the current available antibiotics, either by mutation or by receipt of foreign g...

Enterococci for which the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of vancomycin was >/=8 mg/l were isolated from meat, feces, and raw milk samples collected in Korea from March to November 2003. Among the 243 vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) that were identified the vanA vancomycin resistance gene was carried by 51 Enterococcus faecium and one Enterococcus sp., vanC1 was carried by 151 Ent...