IDENTIFICATION OF ENTEROCOCCUS SPECIES FR OM CLINICAL-SAMPLES AND STUDY OF THEIR ANTIMICROBIAL SUSCEPTIBILITY

The genus enterococcus has 12 species of which, E faecalis and E faeci um are most important in human infections. A progressive resistance to penicillin and ampicillin has been detected in these species. The aim of this work was to identify Enterococcus species isolated in a hospi tal and to study their antimicrobial susceptibility. We studied 209 En terococcus species coming from patients admitted to a public hospital. Their susceptibility to penicillin, ampicillin, imipenem, vancomycin, tetracycline, chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin, gentamicin and streptom ycin was determined with the agar dilution technique. Eighty seven per cent of species were E faecalis and 7,1% were E fecium, other isolated species were E hirae, E casseliflaws, E avium, E solitarius and E fae calis variant. Thirty eight percent of these species were isolated fro m the urinary tract, 22% from the skin and 14% from surgical wounds. A ll E faecalis species were susceptible to penicillin, ampicillin, imip enem and vancomycin; 27,3% were susceptible to tetracycline, 54,7% to chloramphenicol and 80% to ciprofloxacin. Seventy three percent of E f aecium species were susceptible to penicillin, 80% to ampicillin and 6 0% to imipenem. Sixty two percent of E faecalis and 42,4% of E faecium were resistant to streptomycin. It is concluded that the correct iden tification of Enterococcus species has therapeutic implications.