ABSTRACT
The past two decades have witnessed a marked change in the distribution of pathogens reported to cause nosocomial bloodstream infections (BSI) (1-4). There was a constant increase in the proportion of Gram-positive versus Gram-negative organisms implicated in nosocomial BSI, and this shift was mainly due to significant increases of infections with coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS), Staphylococcus aureus, and enterococci (3,5,6). These organisms currently account for between 40% and more than 60% of the recovered bloodstream pathogens (1-4). A considerable part of these infections is associated with the increasing use of intravascular catheters.
