Edinburgh Napier University

  Enterococci have become increasingly important as a cause of hospital acquired infections. They are reported to be the third commonest cause of hospital acquired infections, responsible for approximately 10.7% of such infections. Furthermore, enterococci have developed resistance to the antibiotics currently in use. Up to now, few studies have investigated the dynamics of enterococcal colonization and this would appear to be a relevant step toward a better understanding of antibiotic-resistant enterococcal (ARE) colonization and infection. Many of the difficulties encountered in the study of enterococcal epidemiology have been due to the lack of a good typing method. But this has been aided in recent years by the introduction of DNA-based typing methods. In order to further our knowledge of enterococcal epidemiology we have studied the dynamics of E. faecalis colonization in bone marrow transplant patients using four typing methods.