The evolution of methicillin-resistant and vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus has demanded serious review of antimicrobial use and development of new agents and revised approaches to prevent and overcome drug resistance. Depending on local conditions and patient risk factors, empirical therapy of suspected S. aureus infection may require coverage of drug-resistant organisms with newer a...

The study objective was to determine the prevalence and risk factors for nasal colonization with Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin resistance among the urban poor and to compare antibiotic resistance and genetic similarity to concurrently collected clinical isolates of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA). A population-based community sample of 833 homeless and marginally housed adults we...

Most methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates identified among blood isolates collected in Denmark between 1957 and 1970 belonged to either phage group III or the closely related 83A complex and had a PSTM antibiotype (resistance to penicillin [P], streptomycin [S], tetracycline [T], and methicillin [M]). Recently, some of these isolates were shown to have the same genetic ba...

Staphylococcus aureus is a versatile Gram-positive coccus frequently found colonizing the skin and nasal membranes of humans. The acquisition of the staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec was a major milestone in the evolutionary path of methicillin-resistant S. aureus. This genetic element carries the mecA gene, the main determinant of methicillin resistance. MRSA is involved in a plethora of ...

BACKGROUND The incidence of nosocomial Staphylococcus aureus infection is increasing annually and becoming a true global challenge. The pattern of Staphylococcus aureus protein A (spa) types in different geographic regions is diverse. OBJECTIVES This study determined the prevalence of methicillin-resistant S. aureus and different spa types in S. aureus clinical isolates. MATERIALS AND METHO...

A 4 kb fragment of chromosomal DNA was cloned from a clinical strain of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. It comprises part of a section of the chromosome that was lost when the strain was cured of resistance to methicillin and to other antimicrobial agents. The fragment mediates an increased level of methicillin resistance when inserted into a shuttle vector and transformed back int...

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) continues to be an important nosocomial pathogen. Various hospital-based studies have described the incidence of MRSA and carriage of this organism in health care workers. Recently, even community acquired S. aureus strains have shown resistance to methicillin. This changing epidemiology prompted us to study the nasal carriage of MRSA amongst h...

coagulase-positive and coagulase negative, methicillin-resistant staphylococci are major causes of serious nosocomial infections and it is very important to have a reliable test to detect these bacteria. a multiplex polymerase chain reaction (mpcr) was used on 100 clinical samples for simultaneous amplification of the universal bacterial, mec-a encoding the penicillin binding protein 2a, which ...

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) have been found in various farm animal species throughout the world. Yet, methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA), methicillin-susceptible non-S. aureus (MS-NSA), and methicillin-resistant non-S. aureus (MR-NSA) were not investigated. Therefore, we persued to determine the diversity in their phenotypic virulence assay, phenotypic antimicrobial...

background coagulase-negative staphylococci (cons) are opportunistic pathogens. methicillin resistance is common in cons and may play an important role as reservoir of staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (sccmec) for staphylococcus aureus. objectives the aim of this study was to determine molecular characteristics of nasal carriage of methicillin-resistant coagulase negative staphylococci am...