title: Antibiotic resistance of clinical isolates of Enterococcus in Italy.
abstract: Alarming reports from various parts of the world of an increase in multiple-drug resistance among enterococci have prompted the Italian Association of Clinical Microbiologists to sponsor a nationwide study aimed at assessing the magnitude of this problem in Italy. During the last 3 months of 1988, technicians from a total of 162 general and teaching hospitals, in 16 of the 20 Italian regions and covering 89,061 beds, isolated 58,886 bacterial strains from inpatients and outpatients. Enterococci (4,879) represented 8.3% of all microorganisms identified, with Enterococcus faecalis accounting for 4,554 strains and Enterococcus faecium for the remaining 316 (6.5% of all enterococci analyzed). Enterococci were recovered most frequently from urine (62.5%) and genitourinary samples (13.7%). Only 58 strains (1.2%) were associated with bacteremia. The in vitro susceptibility of these organisms to 21 commonly used antibiotics is reported and compared with the susceptibility of isolates from a smaller epidemiologic study conducted in Italy in 1986 as well as with more recent findings from individual laboratories.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microbiology, University of Genoa, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pesce
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Debbia
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Toni
authors.forename: G C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Schito
mesh_terms: D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D016983:Enterococcus / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D015995:Prevalence