ABSTRACT
Between January and December 1987, gentamicin-methicillin-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus (GMRSA) were isolated from 7 patients in a male surgical ward at Rajavithi General Hospital. Six patients developed significant infection which included sepsis (2), pneumonia (1), infection in the eye, ear and wound (1), wound infection (2), and one patient had GMRSA isolated from his sputum. The strains were untypable with standard phage type and were resistant to methicillin, gentamicin, amikacin, kanamycin, streptomycin, tetracycline, erythromycin and chloramphenicol, but susceptible o vancomycin and cotrimoxazole. GMRSA were also isolated from bed-rail and the used rubber gloves left in the affected room. The GMRSA strains contained 5 plasmids of molecular weight of 18, 11, 2, 1.8 and 1.7 Md. The 2Md plasmid coded for chloramphenicol resistance and the 1.8 Md plasmid for erythromycin resistance.