During the course of the study, the spectrum of antibiotic resistance in MRSA isolates decreased. This occurred due to the emergence of strains with SCC type IV or IVA, which are susceptible to more antibiotics than type I or IA strains. The greater prevalence of such isolates could not be linked conclusively to the presence of SCC type IV or IVA, or to one particular PFGE cluster.

We studied the susceptibility of 21 strains of Rhodotorula rubra and nine strains of R. glutinis to eight antifungals and tested eight antiseptic agents on one strain of R. rubra. The tested strains were susceptible to ketoconazole, 5-fluorocytosine, amphotericin B, and nystatin, intermediate to econazole and resistant to fluconazole, itraconazole and miconazole. After 5-min contact, six of the eight antiseptic agents tested showed a fungicidal activity on the tested R. rubra strain.

The distributions of the antibiotic resistance patterns in a population of Staphylococcus aureus isolates from a teaching hospital were studied over a 9-year period. The results indicate the existence of successive major epidemic methicillin-resistant strains and the emergence of a methicillin-susceptible strain with an unusual resistance pattern. Our findings suggest that this methicillin-susceptible S. aureus strain could be derived from the dominant gentamicin-susceptible methicillin-resistant S. aureus strain with the loss of a 40-kb DNA fragment.

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