Enterococci are best known as antibiotic-resistant opportunistic pathogens that are commonly recovered from patients who have received multiple courses of antibiotics and have been hospitalized for prolonged periods.¹–⁶ These organisms were well established as a cause of endocarditis and urinary tract infections by the early 1900s,³ and members of the species Enterococcus faecalis were known to be a common cause of nosocomial infections by the early 1980s.³,⁷–⁹ The emergence of enterococci with resistance to vancomycin, seen predominantly in the species E. faecium, has been followed by an increase in the frequency with which this species is recovered. . . .