One hundred and sixty seven isolates of staphylococci isolated from the inpatients of a tertiary care referral hospital in South India were speciated and activity of oxacillin, glycopeptides, linezolid and quinupristin/dalfopristin against these isolates was tested by broth microdilution method. Of the 114 coagulase negative staphylococci (CoNS), 49.1 % were S. haemolyticus, isolated predominantly from urine (64.6%), while the rest belonged to 11 other species. More than half the isolates of S. aureus (52.8%) and 68.4% of the CoNS were oxacillin resistant. All the strains were uniformly susceptible to vancomycin, linezolid and quinupristin/dalfopristin; but 25.6% isolates of S. haemolyticus showed reduced susceptibility to teicoplanin (MIC: 8-16 mg/L). Our study demonstrates the high prevalence of oxacillin resistance among hospital isolates of S. aureus and CoNS in India. Vancomycin, along with the newer agents like linezolid and quinupristin/dalfopristin remains the drug of choice for treating multi drug resistant staphylococcal infections.

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