Activity of linezolid against multi-resistant Gram-positive bacteria from diverse hospitals in the United Kingdom

The in vitro activity of linezolid, an oxazolidinone, was assessed against 374 Gram-positive cocci, with an emphasis on testing multi-resistant, epidemiologically unrelated isolates. MICs of linezolid for staphylococci, pneumococci and streptococci had a narrow range, from 0.5 to 2 mg/L, whereas MICs for enterococci were uniformly 4 mg/L. For all the species tested, the MICs of linezolid were unrelated to those of other antimicrobials, Linezolid appears to be a potentially useful drug for infections caused by Gram-positive cocci,