This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Other Versions of this Article: JCM.01050-08v1 46/10/3454    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Copyright Information Books from ASM Press MicrobeWorld Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Google Scholar Articles by Dauwalder, O. Articles by Laurent, F. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Dauwalder, O. Articles by Laurent, F.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, October 2008, p. 3454-3458, Vol. 46, No. 10
0095-1137/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JCM.01050-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Epidemiology of Invasive Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Clones Collected in France in 2006 and 2007

Université Lyon, Centre National de Référence des Staphylocoques, F-69622, Lyon, France,¹ INSERM, U851, F-69370, Lyon, France,² Hospices Civils de Lyon, F-69004, Lyon, France,³ Laboratoire de Bactériologie-Hygiène, UFR de Médecine Pierre et Marie Curie Paris VI, Paris, France,⁴ Département des Maladies Infectieuses, Institut de Veille Sanitaire, F-95000, Saint-Maurice, France⁵

Received 3 June 2008/ Returned for modification 21 June 2008/ Accepted 14 July 2008

We conducted a prospective multicenter study of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates, including the first five consecutive clinical isolates, collected between September 2006 and February 2007 in 23 hospitals located throughout France (Fig. 1). The 111 isolates were tested for their antibiotic susceptibility patterns and were extensively characterized by screening for drug resistance and agr alleles, multilocus sequence typing (ST), staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) typing, spa typing, and PCR profiling of 21 toxin genes. Clones were designated by their ST followed by their SCCmec type (I to VI). The Lyon clone ST8-IV or ST8-IV_variant (n = 77; 69.4%) was widely distributed. Four minor clones were also detected, namely, the "classical" Pediatric clone ST5-IV (n = 9; 8.1%), the "new" Pediatric clone ST5-VI (n = 8; 7.2%), the clone Geraldine ST5-I_truncated (n = 7; 6.3%), and the European clone ST80-IV (n = 4; 3.6%). The six other isolates were related to five rare clones. Relative to that of other European countries, the situation in France is marked by the predominance of a specific major clone and the worrying emergence of minor clones with enhanced virulence and new antibiotic susceptibility profiles.

View larger version (14K): [in this window] [in a new window]   FIG. 1. Geographical distribution of the 23 French hospitals that participated in this study.

Published ahead of print on 30 July 2008.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Karauzum, H., Ferry, T., de Bentzmann, S., Lina, G., Bes, M., Vandenesch, F., Schmaler, M., Berger-Bachi, B., Etienne, J., Landmann, R. (2008). Comparison of Adhesion and Virulence of Two Predominant Hospital-Acquired Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Clones and Clonal Methicillin-Susceptible S. aureus Isolates. Infect. Immun. 76: 5133-5138 [Abstract] [Full Text]