The woman in Illinois had undergone a number of medical and surgical procedures that increased her risk of infection. The centers said the emergence of vancomycin resistance increased the possibility that some staph strains would become fully resistant to the antimicrobial agents traditionally used to kill bacteria. The first documented case of vancomycin-resistant staph occurred in a Japanese child in 1996. The first U.S. cases were reported one year later. Researchers said the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria had in part been caused by doctors who too often prescribed antibiotics to patients with viruses such as those that cause colds and flu.
Viruses are immune to antibiotics.
The centers said prompt identification and reporting of vancomycin-resistant staphylococci was the single most important tool for identifying antibiotic resistance.