Neomycin-Resistant Staphylococci in a Rural Outpatient Population

THE OCCURRENCE of neomycin-resistant staphylococci, sometimes in epidemic proportions, is now a well-documented finding in the hospital environment. However, the existence of such strains in outpatient populations in the United States has not been previously described. The identification of Staphylococcus aureus with resistance to multiple antibiotics, including neomycin and bacitracin, in the infected skin lesions of the children of two Minnesota Indian reservations is the subject of the present report.

Materials and Methods  Coagulase-positive staphylococci isolated from skin lesions of Indian children living on the Red Lake and Cass Lake Reservations in northern Minnesota were examined for antibiotic sensitivity. The rural nature of these communities as well as the problem of superficial skin infections and associated acute nephritis were described over a decade ago by Kleinman.¹ More recently, the continuing prevalence of pyoderma and the identification of group A streptococci and coagulase-positive staphylococci in the majority of skin lesions