Increasing incidence of linezolid-intermediate or -resistant, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium strains parallels increasing linezolid consumption

Clinical enterococcal resistance to linezolid is defined by the presence of the G2576T mutation. We evaluated the incidence of genetically proven linezolid resistance among vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium strains and linezolid consumption for a possible association. A relationship was found (r(2) = 0.73, P = 0.03) and predicts increasing resistance with current trends of linezolid use.