Antibiotic resistance of clinical isolates of Enterococcus in Italy

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.