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Linezolid is useful for treating multidrug-resistant gram-positive pathogens, including methicillin-resistant staphylococci and vancomycin-resistant enterococci. Investigators recently reported an outbreak of colonization with linezolid-resistant coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) in a nine-bed ICU at a children’s hospital in Ireland. Such resistance is extremely rare.
The outbreak involved 16 patients over a 6-month period. The resistant strains, isolated from several body sites (most commonly, blood), were genetically similar by pulsed field gel electrophoresis and contained the G2576T mutation. Nasal screening was negative in ICU staff. Although most affected patients had received linezolid before colonization, six had not, suggestin…