Molecular epidemiology of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Zurich, Switzerland (2003): prevalence of type IV SCCmec and a new SCCmec element associated with isolates from intravenous drug users.

ABSTRACT: The majority of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates, recovered in 2003 at the Department of Medical Microbiology in Zürich, Switzerland, belonged to major clones that are circulating worldwide. Staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec type IV (SCCmec-IV), harbored by half of the isolates, was found in sequence type 217 (ST 217), which is an allelic variant of epidemic MRSA-15 (designated EMRSA-15), in a new local ST 617 descending from clonal complex CC 8 and in low-level oxacillin-resistant strains of multiple genetic lineages characteristic of community-onset MRSA. SCCmec-I, SCCmec-II, and SCCmec-III were in the minority, and four MRSA isolates had complex, rearranged SCCmec elements. A novel SCCmec-N1 of approximately 30 kb, associated with a dfrA gene and a ccr 4-

SUBMITTER: Qi W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1248496 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature