Molecular characterization of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis clones: evidence of geographic dissemination

• Published in: Journal of Clinical Microbiology
• Main Authors: Miragaia, Maria, Couto, Isabel, Pereira, Sandro F F, Kristinsson, Karl G, Westh, Henrik, Jarløv, Jens O, Carriço, João, Almeida, Jonas, Santos-Sanches, Ilda, de Lencastre, Hermínia
• Other Authors: Molecular Genetics Laboratory, Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Oeiras, Portugal.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Society for Microbiology 2011
• Subjects: Anti-Bacterial Agents; DNA; Bacterial; Denmark; Drug Resistance; Multiple; Electrophoresis; Gel; Pulsed-Field; Hospitals; Humans; Iceland; Methicillin Resistance; Microbial Sensitivity Tests; Staphylococcal Infections; Staphylococcus epidermidis; World Health; Uruguay
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2336/119828; https://doi.org/10.1128/JCM.40.2.430-438.2002

To access publisher full text version of this article. Please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field Denmark and Iceland are countries where the frequency of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is very low due to strict infection control and restrictive antibiotic use policies. In contrast, methicillin-resistant S. epidermidis (MRSE) continues to be isolated as a nosocomial pathogen. The molecular typing by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) of 136 MRSE isolates from five hospitals in Denmark and 94 MRSE isolates from one hospital in Iceland collected in 1997 and 1998 defined 40 different patterns. Closely related PFGE types were found in isolates recovered in Iceland, Denmark, Mexico, Uruguay, Greece, and Cape Verde, evidencing for the first time the geographic clonal dissemination of MRSE strains. The large majority (87.4%) of the MRSE isolates studied were multiresistant.