BACKGROUND Multi-drug resistant bacteria are increasing and remain a major public health challenge worldwide. In order to understand the potential role of medical students as a reservoir for circulating pathogenic bacteria and their transmission, we analysed the nasal colonisation among 86 clinically exposed medical students of the Medical University of Vienna, which is integrated into General ...

The sequence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strain B6 (sequence type 30 [ST30], spa type t433, staphylococcal chromosomal cassette mec element [SCCmec] type IVc, Panton-Valentine leukocidin [PVL] positive), isolated from a pediatric patient with a lung infection in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is described here. The draft genome sequence includes a 2.8-Mb chromosome, accompa...

Panton-Valentine leucocidin-positive methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains with identical resistance patterns were cultured from recurrent infections of a 51-year-old patient, her healthy husband, son, and dog, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis showed that all MRSA strains were indistinguishable.

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Four pediatric deaths from community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus—Minnesota and North Dakota, 1997–1999. JAMA. 1999;282:1123–5. DOI: 10.1001/jama. 282.12.1123 2. Tristan A, Bes M, Meugnier H, Lina G, Bozdogan B, Courvalin P, et al. Global distribution of Panton-Valentine leukocidin–positive methicillin-resistant Staphylococc...

This report describes the first outbreak of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus USA300 in a general hospital ward in Japan, involving 6 health care workers and 4 patients. This report emphasizes the need for health care personnel to be alert that methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus harboring Panton-Valentine leukocidin gene poses a threat for both nosocomial and occupational inf...

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) commonly causes infection in hospitalized patients. Since its appearance in the 1960s, the SCCmec has evolved throughout the years into 5 different types (I-V), each bearing a different set of genes. Infection with MRSA SCCmec types I, II or III is almost exclusively restricted to hospitalised patients. However, recently, community acquired MRS...

Among 10 strains of community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) isolated in 2002 from patients with skin infections, seven harbored the Panton-Valentine leukocidin gene, two harbored the exfoliative toxin A gene, and one harbored neither of these genes. CA-MRSA isolates producing a variety of exotoxins are currently spreading in the Swiss community.

Three patients with extensive necrotizing pneumonia due to Panton-Valentine leukocidin-positive Staphylococcus aureus strains and with aggravating factors (leukopenia count of less than 3x10(9)/liter in all three cases and hemoptysis in two cases) were successfully treated with toxin-suppressing agents introduced rapidly after hospital admission.

We studied 12 Staphylococcus aureus isolates causing tropical pyomyositis in the Amazon Basin of Peru. All isolates were methicillin-susceptible; 11 carried Panton-Valentine leukocidin-encoding genes, and 5 belonged to multilocus sequence type 25 and possessed an extensive set of enterotoxins. Our findings suggest sequence type 25 is circulating in tropical areas of South America.

We examined the capacity of Staphylococcus aureus strains to release Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) in the presence of antibiotics. No PVL was detected when S. aureus was incubated at inhibitory concentrations, while subinhibitory concentrations of oxacillin enhanced the PVL level; clindamycin, linezolid, and fusidic acid were inhibitory; and vancomycin had roughly no effect.