[1st isolation of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium with the vanB genotype in Argentina: presentation of 2...

We describe the first isolate of van B vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium in Argentina. The strains were recovered from ambulatory patients admitted to a hospital of Buenos Aires city in July 2000. They were not high-risk patients, they had not received previous antibiotic therapy, and they were assisted in different services. MICs for vancomycin were 32 micrograms/ml for both strains, whereas MICs for teicoplanin were 0.12 microgram/ml in case 1 and 0.25 microgram/ml in case 2. PCR was performed to confirm the vanB genotype. The molecular fingerprints of the isolations by PFGE revealed that they were identical. No further VanB strains were isolated in the hospital.