The health-care facility environment is rarely implicated in disease transmission, except
among patients who are immunocompromised. Nonetheless, inadvertent exposures to …

After they were first identified in the mid-1980s, vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE)
spread rapidly and became a major problem in many institutions both in Europe and the …

Background. The incidence and severity of Clostridium difficile–associated diarrhea (CDAD)
has been increasing, and there have been recent reports of metronidazole treatment failure …

Enterococci are commensal organisms well suited to survival in intestinal and vaginal tracts
and the oral cavity. However, as for most bacteria described as causing human disease …

Since their discovery, antimicrobial drugs have proved remarkably effective for the control of
bacterial infections. However, it was soon evident that bacterial pathogens were unlikely to …

Antimicrobial stewardship programs in hospitals seek to optimize antimicrobial prescribing
in order to improve individual patient care as well as reduce hospital costs and slow the …

Enterococci are best known as antibiotic-resistant opportunistic pathogens that are
commonly recovered from patients who have received multiple courses of antibiotics and …

The “Guideline for Prevention of Intravascular Device-Related Infections” is designed to
reduce the incidence of intravascular device-related infections by providing an over view of …

In the preantibiotic era, passive antibody administration (serum therapy) was useful for the
treatment of many infectious diseases. The introduction of antimicrobial chemotherapy in the …

The mechanisms behind the development and spread of bacterial resistance to
antimicrobial drugs are reviewed. The chief mechanisms by which antimicrobials act are …