CHINET 2007 surveillance of antibiotic resistance in Enterococcus in China

Objective To investigate the antimicrobial resistance in Enterococcus species isolated from hospitals in several regions of China during year of 2007.Methods Ten general hospitals and two children′s hospitals were involved in this program. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was carried out by means of Kirby-Bauer (KB) according to the unified protocol. The data were analyzed by WHONET 5.4 software according to CLSI 2007 breakpoint.Results A total of 2 634 nonduplicate Enterococcus isolates were collected, including 1 281 E. faecalis (48.6%), 1 017 E. faecium (38.6%), 94 E. durans (3.6%), 50 E. avium (1.9%) and 50 E. gallinarum (1.9%). The resistant rates of E. faecalis to nitrofurantoin and fosfomycin were lower than 10%. The resistant rate to ampicillin was 12.9%. The resistant rate of E. faecium strains to most drugs tested was higher than that of E. faecalis. Nearly 90% E. faecium strains was resistant to ampicillin, but only 6.1% to chloramphenicol. More than 70% of E. faecium and nearly 50 % of E. faecalis isolates were resistant to gentamicin (high level). A total of 6 E. faecalis and 21 E. faecium strains were found resistant to vancomycin. Vancomycin resistance gene vanA was detected in all VRE strains. Linezolid-resistant strain was not found.Conclusions Enterococcus isolates exhibit multidrug resistance. The prevalence of VRE is increasing in some hospitals, which should be paid serious attention to in clinical and laboratory practice.