The increased pathogenic potential and multiple-drug resistance demonstrates the need to adopt simple, reliable and non-expensive methods for identifying and determining the antibiotic sensitivity of CONS.

Background: Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most commonly isolated organisms in nosocomial infections. While the prevalence of methicillin--resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) continues to increase worldwide, there is a concern about an increase in vancomycin minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC,s) among S. aureus strains. An attempt was, therefore, made to study vancomycin susceptibility in 156 MRSA isolates from various clinical samples during the period of February 2008 to January 2009. Materials and Methods: A total of 156 isolates of S. aureus were collected from various clinical specimens. MIC of vancomycin was detected by agar dilution method. Results: Out of 156 MRSA isolates all were susceptible to vancomycin by disc diffusion method. By agar dilution method, 138 isolates were susceptible to vancomycin (VISA MIC 0.5-2 µgm/ml) and 18 isolates showed intermediate susceptibility to vancomycin (VISA MIC 4-8 µgm/ml). No vancomycin resistant S. aureus (VRSA) with MIC ≥ 16 µgm/ml was detected. Conclusion: The present study reveals the emergence of MRSA with reduced susceptibility to vancomycin and indicates the magnitude of antibiotic resistance in and around Davangere.

Clinical bacterial pathogens front a major challenge for the clinical researchers and physicians. In particular microbial pathogens like Escherichia coli, Shigella flexneri, Klebsiella pneumonia and Salmonella enterica are apparelled with systemic machineries to bring down the human immune system as well as proliferate dramatically in a short period which in turn cause a pronounced ailment to the human health. In vitro evaluation of four purified compounds isolated from rhizosphere bacterium Exiguobacterium mexicanum tested against clinical pathogens mentioned above by disc diffusion method showed the two compounds viz., 3,6,18-trione, 9,10-dihydro-12'-hydroxyl-2methyl-5-(phenyl methyl) (5'-alpha, 10-alpha)-dihydroergotamine (C3) and dipropyl - S-propyl ester (C4) exhibit antibacterial property against all the tested pathogens. Among the four clinical pathogens tested, compound C3 has shown higher zone of inhibition against S. enterica with 17±0 mm, followed by S. flexneri with 16.5±0.7 mm, E. coli with 15±0 mm and K. pneumoniae with 14±0 mm, respectively. The compound C4 has shown higher antimicrobial activity against S. enterica with 21.5±0.7 mm zone of inhibition, followed by S. flexneri with 19.5±0.7 mm, E. coli with 17±0 mm and K. pneumoniae with 16±0 mm, these two compounds were found to be safer when subjected to rat haematological and enzymatic analysis.

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