BACTERIA DEVELOP RESISTANCE TO NEW ANTIBIOTIC (p1179)April 11, 2001Multi-drug resistant bacteria have caused enormous difficulties worldwide over the past few decades. Scientists had hoped, however, that new drugs currently available for prescription would help to suppress the emergence of super-bugs such as meticillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus that hit the British headlines last year. But, research published by an American group in this week’s issue of THE LANCET suggests that these harmful bacteria have already built up a resistance to the newest drugs. Linezolid is a new antibiotic, which received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration at the beginning of 2000. Ronald D Gonzales (University of Illiniois College of Medicine, Chicago, USA) and colleagues studied its use in the treatment of bacterial infections caused by a strain of Enterococcus faecium that is resistant to the antibiotic vancomycin. The investigators studied five patients who were admitted to one of three hospitals in USA last year. In every case, linezolid was initially successful as a therapy. However, the enterococci causing the infection eventually became resistant to the new drug and in three cases the patients grew unresponsive to treatment. Gonzales and colleagues concede that all five patients in their study from whom linezolid-resistant bacteria were recovered had received long courses of the drug, thereby increasing the chances of resistance. Their overall message is clear: “resistance may emerge during linezolid therapy for vancomycin resistant enterococci infections, especially during long courses, and may be associated with treatment failure. Susceptibility testing should be performed on all isolates ”. Contact: Dr John P Quinn, Department of Medicine, Section of Infectious Diseases, University of Illinois College of Medicine, 840 S Wood Street, M/C 787, Chicago IL, USA; E) JPQuinn@uic.edu Lancet |
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