Vancomycin-resistant enterococci

Enterococci have been recognized as an important cause of nosocomial infections for almost 20 years and as a cause of endocarditis for almost a century. While long known for their capacity of displaying multiple antibiotic resistant traits, the extent to which this could occur was not fully appreciated until the emergence of enterococci with acquired resistance to vancomycin; this resistance has been particularly problematic because it often occurs in the uncommon subset of enterococci that are also highly resistant to ampicillin--a combination with devastating therapeutic consequences. The observation that vancomycin resistance can be transferred to and expressed in other gram-positive organisms, for which vancomycin is often considered the primary therapeutic alternative, is a chilling reminder of just how close we may be to a wide array of potentially untreatable ''killer'' microbes. (C) 1997 by Excerpta Medica, Inc.