Prevalence of different enterococcal species isolated from blood and their susceptibility to antimicrobial drugs in Vojvodina, Serbia, 2011-2013

Abstract

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.

Prevalence and phenotypic characterization of Enterococcus species isolated from clinical samples of pediatric patients in Jimma University Specialized Hospital, south west Ethiopia

“…The current study showed that 22.7% of the isolates were resistant to vancomycin which is comparable with finding from Tabriz in Iran [ 29 ] and Mansoura in Egypt [ 28 ], but higher than the prevalence reported from Turkey, 1.55% [ 30 ]; 10% [ 31 ] and 16% [ 32 ] from Iran. But lower than the findings from Serbia, 54% [ 33 ]; Iran [ 34 ] and Nigeria, 42.9% [ 20 ] in clinical isolates from all age groups. The increased prevalence of VRE infection in our study might be associated with the availability and use of vancomycin in Jimma Specialized Hospital.…”

Isolation of enterococci, their antimicrobial susceptibility patterns and associated factors among patients attending at the University of Gondar Teaching Hospital

“…This result was in line with a finding in Nigeria 42.9% [17]; but lower than in Iraq 71.4% [27] and Serbia 54.05% [28]. This discrepancy might be due to the difference in type of clinical samples analyzed as it was on urine in the case of Iraq and blood in case of Serbia.…”

“…This variation might be due to difference in the study participants and type of specimen which was only hospitalized patients with UTI in the previous study. This study also revealed that, 33.3% of enterococci isolates developed resistance to all tested antibiotics which was almost similar with report from Nigeria 42.86% [28]. …”

“…Vancomycin resistance genes are easily transmitted though transposons which contain van genes and enterococci have high ability to harbor and transfer transposable genetic elements [9]. Even these genes now a days are disseminated to other pathogenic organisms and recently vancomycin resistant S.aureus were also reported [9, 28]. …”

Is the level of knowledge a predictor of rational antibiotic use in Serbia?

“…According to the report of the National Reference Laboratory for Antimicrobial Monitoring and Surveillance, Serbia belongs to a group of European countries with the highest rates of resistance [1, 2]. …”