United States geographic bacteria susceptibility patterns

Antimicrobial drug resistance in bacterial pathogens continues, with 1997 s eeing reports of Staphylococcus aureus no longer fully susceptible to vanco mycin occurring in the United States. To better deal with this vapidly deve loping problem, we present the third year of United States national data th at highlights the geographic nature of increasing resistance to antimicrobi al agents. In 1997, we observed increasing numbers of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium, move methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRS A), and an apparent spreading of penicillin resistance in pneumococci. The majority of reporting sites now indicates that over 20% of Pseudomonas aeru ginosa are fully resistant to ciprofloxacin, the only oral agent available for treating this pathogen. With increasing resistance coming at a time of decreasing available resources, it is more clear than ever before that the future of infections diseases and clinical microbiology remains filled with challenge. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc.