Dermatitis patients MRSA prone

Link: HighWire Press -- Medline Abstract.

Eighty seven (75.4%) of 115 patients contained cultivable S. aureus, of which 16 (18.3%) were MRSA. All MRSA were susceptible to chloramphenicol, rifampin, cotrimoxazole, and ciprofloxacin. While MSSA were composed of 23 isolates of singular types and 9 clusters comprising 48 isolates, MRSA isolates were typed into three clones; 8 isolates of pulsotype A-agr1-SCCmec IV, 5 isolates of pulsotype B-agr3-SCCmec IIb-etb-positive, and 3 isolates of pulsotype C-agr3-SCCmec IV. Three SCCmec IVA-MRSA were tst-positive but none were positive for the pvl or eta. Among 71 MSSA isolates, 7 isolates were tst-positive, of which 6 were pulsotype F-agr3, and 9 of 10 agr4-isolates were eta-positive. The average ages of patients carrying MSSA, SCCmec IVA-MRSA and SCCmec IIb-MRSA were 7.7 /-4.6, 3.1 /-1.5 and 8.2 /-3.1 years, respectively. Among the patients carrying MRSA, two patients had been treated with oral antimicrobials and one had been admitted to hospital 18 months ago. In conclusion, CA-MRSA isolates of a few clones colonized AD skin of the patients without risk factors for acquisition of HA-MRSA, which suggested that the AD skin of children may represent a significant reservoir of MRSA colonization in community.