In Vitro Activity of Telavancin against a Contemporary Worldwide Collection of Staphylococcus aureus Isolates

The activity of telavancin and comparators was assessed against a contemporary (2007 and 2008) global collection of 10,000 isolates of Staphylococcus aureus. Telavancin was very active against methicillin-susceptible and-resistant S. aureus (MSSA and MRSA, respectively; MIC50/90 for both, 0.12/0.25 g/ml; 100.0 % suscep-tible). This agent was 2-, 4-, and 8-fold more potent than daptomycin (MIC90, 0.5 g/ml), vancomycin or quinupristin-dalfopristin (MIC90, 1 g/ml), and linezolid (MIC90, 2 g/ml) against MRSA, respectively. These data show a potent activity of telavancin tested against a current global collection of S. aureus. Antimicrobial drug resistance among Gram-positive patho-gens represents an ongoing worldwide therapeutic challenge. Since the 1990s, increasing rates of methicillin-resistant Staph-ylococcus aureus (MRSA) have been documented, and results from the National Healthcare Safety Network have recently shown that 56.2 % of S. aureus isolates related to cases of device- and health care-associated infections in the United States were MRSA (10). This frequent phenotypic resistance feature found among hospital-acquired (HA) S. aureus strain