Geographic spread of epidemic multiresistant Staphylococcus aureus clone in Brazil

Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus isolates from five large teaching hospitals and one medium-size community hospital located in geographically distant parts of Brazil, in the south and southeast (Rio de Janeiro, Niteroi, Sao Paulo, Porto Alegre) and in the north (Manaus), were tested for their antibiotic resistance patterns and genetic backgrounds. Eighty-five of the 152 isolates were identified as methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) by using a combination of an agar dilution screen and a mecA gene-specific DNA probe. All MRSA isolates were resistant to penicillin, erythromycin, gentamicin, oxacillin, and cephalothin, and the majority of isolates (74%) were also resistant to chloramphenicol, sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim, ciprofloxacin, and clindamycin as well and were susceptible only to vancomycin. Isolates obtained from hospitals in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Niteroi, and Porto Alegre (1,600 km from one another) and Manaus (3,700 km from Rio de Janeiro) were examined by a variety of molecular fingerprinting techniques: the nature of the mecA polymorph and Tn554 attachment sites and restriction fragment length polymorphism of genomic DNAs after SmaI restriction and separation of the digested DNA by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. The overwhelming majority of the isolates shared a common pulsed-field gel electrophoresis pattern and carried mecA polymorph III in combination with Tn554 pattern B, indicating the presence of a single, epidemic MRSA clone spread over large geographic distances of Brazil.

Bridges from hospitals to the laboratory: genetic portraits of methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureusclones

“…The Brazilian clone was shown to be widely disseminated in Brazilian hospitals [43] and to have spread to neighboring countries in South America : Argentina (for references see table 1 of [14]), Uruguay and Chile [72], and to Europe: Portugal, the Czech Republic (for references see table 1 of [14]) and one hospital in Greece [73], where it displaced the local major clone. It was also found in other European countries such as Finland, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and the UK [20].…”

Brazilian phytopharmaceuticals – evaluation against hospital bacteria

“…Its resistance has been related to the predominance of epidemic PFGE (pulsed field gel electrophoresis) clones capable of massive geographic expansion (Mato et al, 1998;Souza et al, 1998). In Brazil, a single PFGE clone A MRSA has been shown to be prevalent in several hospitals (Sader et al, 1994;Teixeira et al, 1995;Santos et al, 1999). The presence of this prevalent clone makes the control of MRSA nosocomial infections difficult (Hartstein et al, 1997).…”

Characterization of Weissella ceti infections in Brazilian rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum), farms and development of an oil‐adjuvanted vaccine

“…Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) was performed as described previously (Teixeira et al 1995;Oliveira et al2005). W. ceti strains were thawed and grown overnight in MRS broth at 25°C.…”