ABSTRACT
Physicians treating patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) are increasingly faced with infections caused by multidrug-resistant strains. Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus are the most common bacterial pathogens isolated from the CF respiratory tract where they cause persistent infections associated with a more rapid decline in lung function and survival [1,2]. In recent years, however, there has been an increasing number of reports on potentially emerging and challenging pathogens, probably due to improved laboratory detection strategies and to selective pressure exerted on bacterial populations by the antipseudomonal antibiotic therapy [2]. In this respect, both the overall prevalence and incidence of intrinsically antibiotic-resistant Stenotrophomonas maltophilia isolations from CF respiratory tract secretions have been recently reported [3-5].
