Enterococci are one of the leading causes of nosocomial infections worldwide. Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium are the most commonly isolated. The aim of this study was to determine prevalence of these species isolated from blood samples of hospitalized patients and their susceptibility to antibiotics particularly to vancomycin and high concentrations of aminoglycosides. A total of 89 enterococcal strains isolated from blood samples between January 1 st 2011 and August 31 st 2013 were tested. The species identification and susceptibility to antimicrobial drugs were performed using automated VITEK 2 system. The most common species was E. faecalis (55.05%), followed by E. faecium (41.57%). The enterococcal isolates were multidrug resistant with E. faecium resistance to vancomycin of 54.05%, while resistance in E. faecalis was not found. All vancomycin resistant enterococci had VanA phenotype of resistance. Thirty three (89.18%) isolates of E. faecium were high-level gentamycin resistant and 32 (91.4%) were resistant to high concentration of streptomycin, whereas frequency of resistant E. faecalis was 61.2 and 63.04%, respectively. This study shows that resistance in enterococcal species is a serious clinical problem in our hospital and suggests the need for regular susceptibility test and species level identification of enterococcal isolates.

Culture of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) as part of active surveillance is one of the most useful strategies for successful infection control programmes. Our objective was to compare the recently introduced CHROMagar mSuperCARBA agar for CPE detection in surveillance cultures from perineal swabs with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention method. Our results showed that this agar is a useful and affordable alternative (sensitivity 93.05%, specificity 96.21%, diagnostic accuracy 95.2%) to detect CPE in hospital settings.