Prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility of enterococcus species isolated from clinical specimens.

Multidrug-resistant enterococci are emerging as a leading nosocomial pathogen. Knowledge of the antimicrobial resistance profile is essential to formulate treatment guidelines for infection caused by enterococci. A total of 200 enterococcal strains were isolated from various clinical specimens from May 2009 to April 2010 in the Department of Microbiology, Bangladesh Institute of Health Sciences Hospital, Mirpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh. They were speciated and an antimicrobial susceptibility pattern was determined. E. faecalis (75.5%) was the most common species in all clinical specimens followed by E. faecium (7.5%) and E. duranes (3.5%). Polymicrobial infection was found in 24(12%) of the cases. The maximum susceptibility was observed with vancomycin (100%) followed by linezolid (96%), imipenem and nitrofurantoin (95%). About 30% high level aminoglycoside resistance (HLAR) was found in this study.