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Editor,—I read with interest the recently published article by Pinna et al,1 and compliment the authors for bringing to light the important issue of external ocular infections associated with coagulase negative staphylococci (CoNS). Ocular microbiologists rarely pay attention to the speciation of this group of bacteria and various species involved in ocular infections are generally passed off as Staphylococcus species or CoNS. Apart from speciation, this group of staphylococci needs special attention with respect to their role in pathogenicity. Generally,S epidermidis and other CoNS along with corynebacteria and propionibacteria are normal commensals of the conjunctival sac and lids; therefore samples from the external ocular surface resulting in a light growth on primary solid culture medium like blood agar or from a thioglycolate broth, are more likely to be associated with contamination.2 In our laboratory and many others across the world, a bacterial isolate (more so a known commensal organism) from corneal scrapings or conjunctival/lid swabs is considered significant if it is consistent with the clinical signs …