Ramos, S.; Silva, V.; Dapkevicius, M.L.E.; Igrejas, G.; Poeta, P. Enterococci, from Harmless Bacteria to a Pathogen. Microorganisms2020, 8, 1118.
Ramos, S.; Silva, V.; Dapkevicius, M.L.E.; Igrejas, G.; Poeta, P. Enterococci, from Harmless Bacteria to a Pathogen. Microorganisms 2020, 8, 1118.
Ramos, S.; Silva, V.; Dapkevicius, M.L.E.; Igrejas, G.; Poeta, P. Enterococci, from Harmless Bacteria to a Pathogen. Microorganisms2020, 8, 1118.
Ramos, S.; Silva, V.; Dapkevicius, M.L.E.; Igrejas, G.; Poeta, P. Enterococci, from Harmless Bacteria to a Pathogen. Microorganisms 2020, 8, 1118.
Abstract
Enterococci are gastrointestinal commensals whose hardiness allowed them to colonize very diverse environments, including soils, water, food and feed. This ability to overcome adverse conditions makes enterococci problematic once they colonize hospital niches. Together with the malleability of their genomes, the capacity to acquire and disseminate determinants of antibiotic resistance have contributed to convert what was once just another opportunistic pathogen into a first-class clinical problem. This review discusses the dimension of the emergence of enterococcal resistance to key antimicrobial agents, the dissemination of this resistance and its significance in terms of public health, with the aim of raising the awareness to the need to devise and implement monitoring programmes and effective antibiotic usage guidelines.
Keywords
Enterococcus; antibiotic resistance; vancomycin resistance; public health; nosocomial opportunists
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Immunology and Microbiology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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