Staphylococcus hominis subsp. novobiosepticus, an emerging multidrug-resistant bacterium, as a causative agent of septicaemia in cancer patients.

Staphylococcus hominis subsp. novobiosepticus is a new sub-species of S. hominis, thus dividing S. hominis into subsp. hominis and novobiosepticus. This study was designed to identify subsp. novobiosepticus isolates amongst the S. hominis isolated from blood samples of patients with malignancy and septicaemia and to study their resistance profile. The identification was performed by using three simple tests which differentiated between the two sub-species. It was found that 22.8 per cent of S. hominis isolates belonged to subsp. novobiosepticus.