Waves of resistance: Staphylococcus aureus in the antibiotic era

Characterisation of virulence genes in methicillin susceptible and resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates from a paediatric population in a university hospital of Medellín, Colombia

“…In the latter two, only the lukS/F-PV genes were detected. Although there is controversy about the role of PVL in the spread and severity of S. aureus infections (Oliveira et al 2002, Chambers & Deleo 2009, Otto 2010, the results of this study show the importance of this virulence factor among resistant strains and in different infections.…”

“…In addition, S. aureus has an exceptional ability to develop resistance to antimicrobial agents (Chambers & Deleo 2009). Among the most known secreted virulence factors is a large family of superantigen exotoxins that include the staphylococcal enterotoxins, which cause food poisoning, toxic shock syndrome toxin 1 (tst-1) and the exfoliative toxins (eta and etb), which are implicated in staphylococcal scalded-skin syndrome (John & Schreiber 2006, Tristan et al 2007).…”

Authors' reply: Emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and extended spectrum β-lactamases, and multi-drug resistance are problems similar to global warming

“…The epidemiology of S. aureus has been the focus of numerous single-center and multicenter surveillance studies; it is dynamic and has changed signifi cantly in recent years 1 . Staphylococcus aureus is considered the most clinically important, gram-positive pathogen in hospitals and is responsible for superficial and invasive infections of the bloodstream, surgical wounds, pneumonia, endocarditis, and osteomyelitis, as mentioned by Dr. Bhattacharya.…”

“…Most often, these infections are associated with the use of invasive medical devices such as central venous catheters, mechanical ventilation, urinary catheter, artifi cial valves, pacemakers, and orthopedic implants 2 . Furthermore, treatment of infections caused by S. aureus is often complicated by the high prevalence of multidrug-resistant strains, which are a consequence of the indiscriminate and inappropriate use of antimicrobials associated with vertical and horizontal resistance gene transfer 1,3 .…”

“…Pulsed-fi eld gel electrophoresis has been widely used for classifi cation of isolates in clonal lineages and is described in several studies on molecular epidemiology, considering its high discriminatory power, reproducibility and ability to typing PFGE involves MLST of housekeeping genes and sequencing from the allelic profi les that defi ne the types and sequence of respective pathogens' clonal complex of clinical interest 1 .…”