SUSCEPTIBILITY OF METHICILLIN-RESISTANT STAPHYLOCOCCUS-AUREUS TO MINOCYCLINE AND OTHER ANTIMICROBIALS

The incidence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is on the rise, especially in nosocomial and intravenous-drug-abuse-rela ted infections, with a concomitant increase in morbidity, mortality an d health care costs. At present the drug of choice, vancomycin, which must be administered intravenously, is expensive and can cause serious side effects in vancomycin-intolerant patients. Recently, minocycline has received much attention as an antibiotic to combat the increasing frequency of MRSA-related infections. We tested 102 recent clinical i solates of MRSA from tertiary-care patients and found none to be resis tant to minocycline, with minimum inhibitory concentrations of <1-2 mu g/ml. The only other drug that inhibited all the strains was vancomyc in, followed by ciprofloxacin (87%), clindamycin (55%) and chloramphen icol (52%). Gentamicin, beta-lactams, tetracycline and trimethoprim-su lfamethoxazole had little or no activity against our isolates of MRSA.