Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), first reported in Europe in 1988, are emerging as a global threat to public health. The incidence of VRE infection and colonization among hospitalized patients has increased rapidly in the last 7 years. From 1989, the year VRE was first identified in the United States, through 1993, the proportion of enterococcal isolates resistant to vancomycin reported to the National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance System increased 20-fold.