title: Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium sepsis following persistent colonization.
abstract: Vancomycin-resistant enterococci have emerged as important nosocomial pathogens and represent a serious threat to patients with impaired host defenses. We describe a patient with leukemia who developed prolonged colonization with vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium and ultimately died of sepsis due to this multidrug-resistant organism. This case report confirms that colonization with vancomycin-resistant enterococci may last indefinitely and that asymptomatic carriage can lead to invasive infection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, Ill., USA.
authors.forename: G A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Noskin
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.forename: L R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Peterson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D016984:Enterococcus faecium / Q000302:isolation & purification; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D005260:Female; D016908:Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D015470:Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute / Q000150:complications; D018805:Sepsis / Q000150:complications / Q000382:microbiology*; D014640:Vancomycin / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D014640:Vancomycin