1. Centers for Disease Control: Achievements in public health, 1900–1999: Control of infectious diseases. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 1999, 48:621–629.
2. Interagency Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance: A public health action plan to combat antimicrobial resistance. Part 1: domestic issues. http://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/actionplan/ html/index.htm. Accessed July 17, 2001. A comprehensive web site maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that provides the full text (in HTML or PDF format) of the Task Force’s Action Plan, a broad-based consensus of federal agencies on actions needed to address the problem of antimicrobial resistance. The Action Plan provides a blueprint for specific, coordinated federal actions to address this emerging threat, which is of great importance to all clinicians with an interest in antibiotic resistance.
3. Centers for Disease Control: Staphylococcus aureus resistant to vancomycin--United States, 2002. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2002, 51:565–567. This report describes the first clinical isolate of S. aureus that is fully resistant to vancomycin. It contains a description of the patient’s history and microbiology results, and suggests that vancomycin resistance might have been acquired through exchange of genetic material from the VRE also isolated from the patient.
4. Abraham EP: An enzyme from bacteria able to destroy penicillin. Nature 1940, 146:837.
5. Aguiar JM, Chacon J, Canton R, Baquero F: The emergence of highly fluoroquinolone-resistant Escherichia coli in community-acquired urinary tract infections. J Antimicrob Chemother 1992, 29:349–350.