OBJECTIVES: Investigation of the antibiotic susceptibilities and trends for staphylococci collected from bacteraemia cases in the UK and Ireland, from 2001 to 2006, as part of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy's Bacteraemia Surveillance Programme. METHODS: Twenty-five hospitals from the UK and Ireland each collected up to 10 consecutive isolates of both Staphylococcus aureus and coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) per year from 2001 to 2006. MIC determination and identification to species level were carried out centrally. mecA and also mupA alleles were sought by PCR in S. aureus and CoNS from 2005 and 2006, respectively. RESULTS: One thousand four hundred and forty-eight S. aureus and 1214 CoNS were collected. The overall prevalence of methicillin resistance was 42% (with </=6% annual fluctuation) for S. aureus and 67% (range 54% to 80%) for CoNS. Resistance to aminoglycosides, macrolides, quinolones and tetracyclines was strongly associated with methicillin resistance in both species groups. Many (20.8%) CoNS and three (0.2%) S. aureus isolates were non-susceptible to teicoplanin, but there was no vancomycin non-susceptibility found in S. aureus and only one vancomycin-intermediate CoNS isolate. There was little evidence of susceptibility trends over time for any antibiotic, with the surveillance period preceding the recent fall in methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) prevalence indicated by the mandatory surveillance of MRSA bacteraemia in England. The newer antibiotics, ceftobiprole, daptomycin, linezolid, telavancin and tigecycline, all had excellent activity against staphylococci. CONCLUSIONS: Multiresistant staphylococci remain abundant in the UK and Ireland but many new antimicrobials are becoming available and these may prove effective alternatives to glycopeptides.
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