[Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis].
Staphylococcus epidermidis has long been overlooked as a pathogen. Modern medicine gives this bacterium ample opportunities to display its pathogenic properties, notably as a colonizer of medical devices (catheters, implants), on which it grows, protected by an exopolysaccharide ('slime') layer. In addition, more and more methicillin-resistant strains are isolated. In Dutch intensive care units S. epidermidis is responsible for 20% of all infections, approximately one third of these isolates are methicillin resistant. As most people have S. epidermidis on their skin, spread and cross infection are unavoidable; still a judicious antibiotic use help to keep the frequency of resistance as low as possible.
Vandenbroucke-Grauls
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CM
Academisch Ziekenhuis Vrije Universiteit, afd. Klinische Microbiologie en Ziekenhuishygiëne, Amsterdam.
D018432:Drug Resistance, Multiple; D006801:Humans; D016106:Methicillin Resistance; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000382:microbiology*; D013212:Staphylococcus epidermidis / Q000187:drug effects*