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JAC Advance Access originally published online on December 4, 2003
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Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (2004) 53, 109-112
© 2004 The British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy

Persistence of a clone of glycopeptide-resistant Enterococcus faecalis among patients in an intensive care unit of a Greek hospital

Spyros Pournaras1,*, Helen Malamou-Lada2, Maria Maniati1, Dimitra Mylona-Petropoulou2, Helen Vagiakou-Voudris2, Athanassios Tsakris3 and Antonios N. Maniatis1

1 Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Thessalia, Larissa; 2 Department of Clinical Microbiology, G. Gennimatas General Hospital, Athens; 3 Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Nursing, School of Health Sciences, University of Athens, Athens, Greece

Received 21 August 2003; returned 12 October 2003; revised 16 October 2003; accepted 23 October 2003

Objectives: To investigate an outbreak of glycopeptide-resistant Enterococcus faecalis (GREF) in the intensive care unit (ICU) of ‘G. Gennimatas’ General Hospital, Athens, Greece.

Materials and methods: Between August 2000 and November 2001, 20 highly GREF isolates were recovered from severe infections of separate patients in the ICU. The isolates were tested by PCR, PFGE, mating experiments and plasmid analysis.

Results: All isolates carried the vanA gene. Nineteen isolates fitted to one clone by macrorestriction analysis with four subclones being consecutively detected. Each subclone seemed to predominate for a specific time period. Additionally, four GREF isolates related to the ICU clone were recovered from other wards of the hospital.

Conclusions: Our findings indicate that a monoclonal GREF outbreak persisted for more than 1 year in a large Greek hospital. The rate of GREF isolation declined after the application of infection control measures.

Keywords: glycopeptide resistance, Enterococcus faecalis clone, outbreak

* Corresponding author. Tel: +30-2410-682509; Fax: +30-2410-682508; E-mail: pournaras{at}med.uth.gr


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