Methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus: a 6-month survey in a Lisbon paediatric hospital

Abstract

SUMMARYThe prevalence of nasal colonization and infection with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) among patients and staff was studied in a section of a Paediatric Surgical Unit in Lisbon between February and July 1985. Nasal colonization was demonstrated in 41 % of burned patients, 5 % of non-burned patients and 35 % of the nurses. Infection by MRSA occurred in 30 % of the burns.The isolates had identical serological patterns, slight differences on phage typing and were resistant to methicillin, cephalosporins, tetracycline, erythromycin and aminoglycosides. A chloramphenicol resistance plasmid of 3 Md was present in those isolates which were chloramphenicol resistant and a small plasmid of 1-7 Md which coded for constitutive erythromycin resistance was present in many isolates. Gentamicin, tetracycline and inducible erythromycin resistance were chromosomal.Several reasons for the apparent low virulence of the isolates are discussed.

A comparative assessment of ribosomal DNA polymorphisms in methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) epidemiology

“…These ranges from a traditional method like phage typing (Williams and Rippon, 1952), biotyping (Coia et al, 1990), serotyping (Melo Cristino et al, 1986), to classical methods, which make use of molecular biological techniques (pulse field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) (Wielders et al, 2002), ribotyping (Wielders et al, 2002), restriction fragment analysis of plasmid) such as looking at differences in chromosome and extra-chromosomal element like plasmid. This study was aimed in assessing the value of the detection of rDNA polymorphisms in the genome of S. aureus as a typing system in studying the epidemiology of MRSA.…”

Clonal dissemination of two MRSA strains in Germany

“…This strain was first observed in a clinic in town W; later this strain was isolated from outbreaks of infections in further hospitals. typing and plasmid patterns [11], from Spain by genomic DNA fragment patterns [12], and from France by polymorphism of restriction sites flanking the aac6'-aph2"-determinant [18]. The main reason for inter-hospital spread of multiresistant strains of S. aureus are obviously colonized or infected patients (see also [19,20]).…”

“…[6][7][8] methods. Results of typing indicate clonal dissemination of the most frequently isolated MRSA in western European countries [9][10][11][12]; MRSA isolated from infections in German hospitals were obviously different [1,13]. However from autumn 1992 until now we have observed clonal dissemination of two MRSA strains, one in the north and one in the south-west of Germany.…”

The role of healthcare personnel in the maintenance and spread of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

“…Variability in carriage has led to the use of descriptions such as transient carriage, short-term carriage, and long-term carriage [81,84,105,113,[128][129][130]. Apart from transient carriage, which refers to positive screening sites on one or few occasions and soon to be followed by negative culture, the use of the terms short-term and long-term carriage is somewhat arbitrary.…”

“…Some have proposed that staff carrier rates may be so low that no such screening should be conducted [185]. The latter view is very much in the minority, and staff surveillance cultures have been procured in numerous outbreaks as part of the various control methods [25][26][27]29,31,33,35,36,39,[41][42][43]45,53,59,60,63,65,70,[74][75][76][77]86,[92][93][94]96,104,106,111,113,117,120,124,127,129,131,139,159,183,[186][187][188]. Some have proposed that staff screening should be an active component of routine control methods [36,41,43,…”