Emergence of Hospital- and Community-Associated Panton-Valentine Leukocidin-Positive Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Genotype ST772-MRSA-V in Ireland and Detailed Investigation of an ST772-MRSA-V Cluster in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus nasal colonization in a level III neonatal intensive care unit: Incidence and risk factors

“…17,18 A growing role of community-associated MRSA strains is reported in NICUs. 6,19,20 However, a meaningful distinction between health-care associated MRSA and community-acquired MRSA strains is increasingly challenging and MRSA strains previously identified as belonging to either group are reported to circulate in both community and health care settings. 14,21 Moreover, highly endemic community settings are likely to promote spilling of MRSA into the NICUs via HCWs or parents.…”

Panton-Valentine Leukocidin-Positive Staphylococcus aureus in Ireland from 2002 to 2011: 21 Clones, Frequent Importation of Clones, Temporal Shifts of Predominant Methicillin-Resistant S. aureus Clones, and Increasing Multiresistance

“…The NMRSARL investigated 7,103 S. aureus isolates (6,702 MRSA and 401 MSSA) between 2002 and 2011, of which 1,531 were examined for the presence of the lukF-PV and lukS-PV genes (pvl) ( Table 1). An isolate was selected for pvl investigation if it was recovered from a suspected pvl-associated infection; for MRSA only, an isolate was selected if it exhibited an antibiogram-resistogram (AR) pattern and/or pulsed-field group (PFG) distinct from that of previously or currently predominant pvl-negative health care-associated MRSA clones, e.g., AR-PFG 06-01, indicative of ST22-MRSA-IV or AR-PFG 13/14-00, indicative of ST8-MRSA-IIA-E Ϯ SCC M1 (28,33 (31). One MRSA isolate (E1760) previously reported as pvl positive (30) was excluded from the present study because pvl was not detected despite several attempts using PCR and DNA microarray profiling.…”

“…Between 1999 and 2005, a prevalence rate of 1.8% was reported for pvl-positive MRSA in Ireland, and six distinct pvl-positive MRSA clones (ST30, ST8, ST22, ST80, ST5, and ST154, all harboring SCCmec IV) were identified, some of which were probably imported (30). In 2011, we reported multiple importations of the multiresistant pvl-positive ST772-MRSA-V clone into Ireland and a cluster of this clone in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in an Irish hospital (31). However, there have been no published data on the overall prevalence and molecular epidemiological characteristics of the pvl-positive MRSA population in Ireland since 2005 and only a single report of a familial outbreak of pvl-positive MSSA in Ireland; no molecular epidemiological typing of the isolates was undertaken (32).…”

Evaluation of commercial chromogenic media for the detection of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

“…This specificity rate is low in comparison to other studies where specificity rates of 95"99% have been reported for chromogenic agars. [11][12][13] However, these other studies confined investigations to clinical specimens only, whereas the current study included a diverse collection of MSSA strains. The recovery of these MSSA strains as presumptive MRSA isolates has implications for the diagnostic laboratory in terms of increasing the turnaround time and resource management.…”

“…[11][12][13] However, a challenge arose for the MRSA Select II and MRSA Brilliance 2 media: each failed to detect a small number of MRSA isolates (one and three isolates, respectively) exhibiting susceptible oxacillin MICs. A small increase in the prevalence of oxacillin-susceptible mecA-positive isolates has been previously reported elsewhere and similar isolates have been recovered in the National MRSA Reference…”