Emergence of vancomycin-intermediate Staphylococcus aureus and S. sciuri, Greece.

Athanassios Tsakris,Fotini Stylianopoulou,Ekaterini Papadimitriou,Evangelos Manolis,John Douboyas

doi:10.3201/eid0805.010387

Abstract

Emergence of vancomycin-intermediate Staphylococcus aureus and S. sciuri, Greece.

Highlights

To the Editor: Staphylococcal isolates with reduced susceptibility to glycopeptides, such as vancomycin and teicoplanin, are a serious public health problem because staphylococci frequently show multidrug resistance, and glycopeptides are the only remaining effective drugs
All clinically significant staphylococcal isolates are screened for reduced susceptibility to vancomycin and teicoplanin by an agar incorporation method [9], which has been routinely performed since January 1999
When a reduced susceptibility to vancomycin was observed (MIC 8 to 16 μg/mL), the test was repeated for confirmation of the result and the strains were tested by National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS) broth microdilution [9] and E-test (AB Biodisk, Solna, Sweden) with BHI agar (Oxoid, Ltd., Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK) and an inoculum density adjusted to 0.5 McFarland value

Summary

Introduction

To the Editor: Staphylococcal isolates with reduced susceptibility to glycopeptides, such as vancomycin and teicoplanin, are a serious public health problem because staphylococci frequently show multidrug resistance, and glycopeptides are the only remaining effective drugs. All clinically significant staphylococcal isolates are screened for reduced susceptibility to vancomycin and teicoplanin by an agar incorporation method [9], which has been routinely performed since January 1999.

Results

Conclusion