Detection of inducible clindamycin resistance among clinical isolates of staphylococci from a rural tertiary care hospital

Clindamycin has been used successfully to treat pneumonia and soft tissue infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. However, Clinical failure of clindamycin therapy has been reported due to multiple mechanisms that confer resistance to Macrolide, Lincosamine and Streptogramin antibiotics. A total of 96 staphylococcal isolates from different clinical specimens were tested for inducible clindamycin resistance by the disk-diffusion induction test. Inducible clindamycin resistance was detected in 47.22% of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates and in 21.67% of methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus isolates. In our setting, clindamycin is safe and effective agent to treat both systemic sand localized Staphylococcal infections, but we recommend that staphylococci isolates, particularly methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus