Significance of Staphylococcus epidermidis in Health Care-Associated Infections, from Contaminant to Clinically Relevant Pathogen: This Is a Wake-Up Call!
Coagulase-negative staphylococci, particularlyStaphylococcus epidermidis, have been recognized as an important cause of health care-associated infections. Concurrently,S. epidermidisis a common contaminant in clinical cultures, which poses a diagnostic challenge. An article in this issue ofJournal of Clinical Microbiology(I. Tolo, J. C. Thomas, R. S. B. Fischer, E. L. Brown, B. M. Gray, and D. A. Robinson, J Clin Microbiol 54:1711–1719, 2015,http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/JCM.03345-15) describes a rapid single nucleotide polymorphism-based assay for distinguishing betweenS. epidermidisisolates from hospital and nonhospital sources, which represents an important contribution to the characterization and understanding ofS. epidermidishealth care-associated infections.