A Novel Chromogenic Medium for Detection of Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcus faecalis

Service de Bactériologie-Virologie, INSERM U914: Emerging Resistance to Antibiotics, Hôpital de Bicêtre, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Faculté de Médecine, Université Paris-Sud, France

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: nordmann.patrice{at}bct.ap-hop-paris.fr.

	Abstract

Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) are becoming widespread worldwide and a rapid identification of VRE carriers from surveillance cultures is crucial for efficient control of their spread. We assessed a new selective chromogenic medium chromID VRE (bioMérieux, France) that enhanced isolation and presumptive identification of VRE directly from rectal swabs, and reduced unnecessary confirmatory and time-consuming tests.