Molecular epidemiology of hospital-onset methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections in Southern Chile

GUSTAVO MEDINA; ANA L. EGEA; C. OTTH; L. OTTH; H. FERNÁNDEZ; BOCCO J.L; M. WILSON; CLAUDIA SOLA

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2013 vol. 32 p. 1533 - 1533

ethicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a pathogen of public health importance. In Chile, the Cordobes/Chilean clone was the predominant healthcare- associated MRSA (HA-MRSA) clone in 1998. Since then, the molecular epidemiological surveillance of MRSA has not been performed in Southern Chile.We aimed to investigate the molecular epidemiology of HA-MRSA infections in Southern Chile to identify the MRSA clones involved, and their evolu- tionary relationships with epidemic international MRSA line- ages. A total of 303 single inpatient isolates of S. aureus were collected in the Valdivia County Hospital (2007?2008), reveal- ing 33 % (100 MRSA/303) prevalence for HA-MRSA infec- tions. The SCCmec types I and IV were identified in 97 % and 3 % of HA-MRSA, respectively. All isolates lacked the pvl genes. A random sample (n = 29) of all MRSAwas studied by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), multilocus sequence typing (MLST), SCCmec subtyping, agr and spa typi