Journal article
Molecular epidemiology of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in a Veterans Administration Medical Center
Infection control and hospital epidemiology, Vol.23(9), pp.502-505
09/2002
DOI: 10.1086/502096
PMID: 12269446
Abstract
To determine whether patients who were colonized or infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) persistently carried the same strain and to identify the extent of strain variation within a population of patients.
Molecular typing by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) of stored MRSA isolates.
A Veterans Administration Medical Center with 288 hospital, 45 intermediate-care, and 75 extended-care beds. ISOILATES: Between January 1991 and March 1993, 91 patients had MRSA identified in routine cultures. One hundred isolates from 57 patients (63%) were available for typing.
Before 1988, only occasional MRSA isolates were identified. By 1993, 50% of S. aureus isolates from unique patients were resistant to methicillin. PFGE identified 7 MRSA strains, 3 of which were identified in specimens from 1 patient each. The most common strains were SD4 (20 patients), SD1 (12 patients), SD2 (12 patients), and SD5a (5 patients). Twenty patients had 2 or more isolates obtained at least 1 week apart (mean, 30.7 weeks; range, 1 to 102 weeks). Of these patients, 12 were colonized or infected with only one strain (mean time observed, 25.1 weeks; range, 1 to 82 weeks). Eight patients had at least 2 different strains (mean time observed, 39 weeks; range, 2 to 102 weeks).
Numerous MRSA strains circulated in this endemic setting, 40% of patients observed over time were colonized or infected with more than one strain. Molecular typing was an essential tool for evaluating the epidemiology of MRSA in this setting.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Molecular epidemiology of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in a Veterans Administration Medical Center
- Creators
- Loreen A Herwaldt - The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City 52242-081, USAJean M PottingerStacy CoffmanJean Tjaden
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Infection control and hospital epidemiology, Vol.23(9), pp.502-505
- DOI
- 10.1086/502096
- PMID
- 12269446
- ISSN
- 0899-823X
- eISSN
- 1559-6834
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 09/2002
- Academic Unit
- Infectious Diseases; Epidemiology; Internal Medicine
- Record Identifier
- 9984094626602771
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