Molecular Characteristics of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococci Clinical Isolates from a Tertiary Hospital in Northern Thailand

Abstract

Methicillin-resistant staphylococci are now recognized as a major cause of infectious diseases, particularly in hospitals. Molecular epidemiology is important for prevention and control of infection, but little information is available regarding staphylococcal infections in Northern Thailand. In the present study, we examined antimicrobial susceptibility patterns, detection of antimicrobial resistance genes, and SCCmec types of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative staphylococci (MR-CoNS) isolated from patients in a hospital in Northern Thailand. The species of MRSA and MR-CoNS were identified using combination methods, including PCR, MALDI-TOF-MS, and tuf gene sequencing. The susceptibility pattern of all isolates was determined by the disk diffusion method. Antimicrobial resistance genes, SCCmec types, and ST239 were characterized using single and multiplex PCR. ST239 was predominant in MRSA isolates (10/23). All MR-CoNS (N=31) were identified as S. haemolyticus (N=18), S. epidermidis (N=3), S. cohnii (N=3), S. capitis (N=6), and S. hominis (N=1). More than 70% of MRSA and MR-CoNS were resistant to cefoxitin, penicillin, oxacillin, erythromycin, clindamycin, gentamicin, and ciprofloxacin. In MRSA isolates, the prevalence of ermA (78.3%) and ermB (73.9%) genes was high compared to that of the ermC gene (4.3%). In contrast, ermC (87.1%) and qacA/B genes (70.9%) were predominant in MR-CoNS isolates. SCCmec type III was the dominant type of MRSA (13/23), whereas SCCmec type II was more present in S. haemolyticus (10/18). Ten MRSA isolates with SCCmec type III were ST239, which is the common type of MRSA in Asia. This finding provides useful information for a preventive health strategy directed against methicillin-resistant staphylococcal infections.

Methicillin Resistant Staphylococci Isolated in Clinical Samples: a 3-year Retrospective Study Analysis

“…The MRS prevalence reported in our study is consistent with studies from Cameroon where 72 and 75% of MRS were detected in clinical [3] and carriage [1] samples in Yaounde, respectively. In contrast, the results are lower than that reported from a survey conducted in a tertiary hospital in Northern Thailand where a maximum prevalence of MRS (100%) was detected from clinical isolates [8]. These results are however, higher in comparison with that reported in studies from other part of the world.…”

Molecular characterization of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus clinical strains from the endotracheal tubes of patients with nosocomial pneumonia

“…In terms of antimicrobial susceptibility, similar results have been reported in other studies. For instance, in a series of MRSA strains isolated from different samples, Kitti et al [14] found high levels of resistance to ciprofloxacin (72.1%), erythromycin (86.9%), gentamicin (72.1%), and clindamycin (86.9%).…”

Molecular Characteristics of Staphylococcus aureus From Food Samples and Food Poisoning Outbreaks in Shijiazhuang, China

“…Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) analysis of S. aureus is important for the prognosis of infection, and it provides means to trace epidemiologically related strains contributing to the tracking of the contamination source. The MLST types of S. aureus vary with regions and sources ( Pereira et al, 2009 ; Cheng et al, 2013 ; Rao et al, 2015 ; Thapaliya et al, 2017 ; Htun et al, 2018 ; Kitti et al, 2018 ; Wu et al, 2018 ; Li et al, 2019 ).…”