
    recommendation of the data safety monitoring committee
  
['methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus']
['beta-lactam']

        Inclusion Criteria:

          1. Age >= 18 years.

          2. ≥1 set of blood cultures positive for MRSA

          3. Able to be randomized within 72 hours of blood cultures being collected.

          4. Likely to remain as inpatient for 7 days following randomization

        Exclusion Criteria:

          1. Previous type 1 hypersensitivity reaction to ß-lactams

          2. Polymicrobial bacteraemia (not counting contaminants)

          3. Previous participation in the trial

          4. Known pregnancy

          5. Current β-lactam antibiotic therapy which cannot be ceased or substituted

          6. Participant's primary clinician unwilling to enrol patient

          7. Moribund (expected to die in next 48 hours with or without treatment)

          8. Treatment limitations which preclude the use of antibiotics Note that we are NOT
             planning to exclude participants with renal failure.
      